Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The heavy metal door to the Hades’ cabin creaks open, followed by the taps of Will Solace’s light footsteps as he enters. Nico doesn’t bother to turn around — he knows it’s Will. No one else has the balls to enter his cabin without knocking. 

And they’re right to be afraid. Nico has no moral attachment to any other camper’s number of fingers. 

“All packed?” Will asks, coming to peek over Nico’s shoulder. 

There’s not much to see. Nico bought a suitcase specifically for this trip. Black and expensive. Hades isn’t exactly hurting for cash. 

Nico’s only two pairs of pants— both black, both jeans, in various stages of torn to shreds— are inside. The others were lost to various questing mishaps and the weight he’s gained since recovering from Tartarus Part Two, Electric Boogaloo (Will’s name for their quest, not his). Next to his pants are a small selection of specialty black Camp Half-Blood t-shirts and random band shirts, almost all of them gifts from different members of the Apollo cabin. Nico is starting to think it’s a competition. Whenever one of them manages to get him to listen to a new band, he usually ends up with a matching new t-shirt the next day. Where they’re getting all these band shirts in Nico’s size at such short notice, he has no idea.

“I think so…” Nico is not really sure what else he should bring. The last quest he went on, he only brought his sword and whatever happened to be in his pockets. This feels like an upgrade.

Will, on the other hand…

“If you’re wondering if I’ve been packed since before breakfast, the answer is yes, and I will not be accepting any critiques at this time!” Will plops down on Nico’s bed next to his suitcase, bouncing it up and down, a testament to truly how little is inside. “This definitely isn’t enough, though, Neeks. We’re going to be gone for a week! You barely have enough clothes here for, like, a weekend trip.” 

Blue tennis shoes swing back and forth as Will settles into place on Nico’s dark bedsheets. Nico watches them collide with the bed frame in an off-beat thunk, thunk, thunk to avoid staring at Will’s face as he throws his head back and laughs full force, golden hair crowding his face. Nico can’t help the smile that creeps across his face at the sight. 

The best part about dating Will is that Nico can always tell Will is laughing with him, and not at him. Plus, when he laughs, Will’s smile lights up the room brighter than the Greek fire torches lining the walls ever could. 

There really should be normal lights in here. Nico is starting to think his daily headaches are coming from eye strain, rather than how messed up his general health and wellbeing are. Probably a combination of both. 

“I swear I’d pack more if I had anything else to bring.” Nico’s small smile fades. He pushes his dark bangs out of his eyes, fidgeting with his camp necklace, two beads strong, with the other hand. He should make getting new pants a priority, but there’s no time to go shopping. They found out they were leaving yesterday. Percy and Annabeth are picking them up in less than two hours. 

Last-minute road trips aren't usually on Nico's list of things he enjoys doing, but he'll make an exception, just this once. For Piper.

Will and Nico are the only ones who found out about the prophecy Jason and Piper received. Lester spilled the beans immediately. No one else knows one of them had to die. That it was going to be either Jason’s funeral or Piper’s funeral, in the end. 

Really, it was always going to be Jason’s funeral. 

Nico was shocked when Piper called him the first time. Even more shocked that he felt better after talking with her. Nico couldn’t lie, he was a little upset that Jason didn’t reach out to any of them about the breakup. Of all the things to happen after Piper and Jason moved to Oklahoma for high school, that was not on Nico’s Bingo card. 

It had clearly put a lot of stress on both of them. Piper was perfectly happy accepting that she liked women, but deciding she only liked women, and having to break Jason’s heart? To then have him lay down his life for her? 

Nico’s heart aches when he thinks about it too hard. So he doesn’t think about it. Ever.

Nico and Piper parted on good terms, with Nico offering to lend a hand if she ever needed anything, joking that "us gays have to stick together." He wasn't sure she'd ever take him up on it. Until she called yesterday morning via Iris Message, begging him and Will to come to Oklahoma so she could finally tell everyone what happened.

She was ready. And Nico and Will promised to do whatever it took to be right there with her when she told them. 

So, off to Oklahoma they go. 

“Maybe we’ll end up shopping while we’re in Indianapolis or Oklahoma and you can get something new! And if not, you can always borrow my clothes if you run out.” And just like that, Will brings Nico back into the moment. Skeletal butterflies resurrect in his stomach at the thought of parading around all of their friends in Will’s clothes. 

Nico very pointedly does not picture sitting in the backseat of Percy Jackson’s car, his hand in Will’s, wearing Will’s favorite yellow hoodie. He also does not picture sharing earbuds and enjoying Will’s new favorite playlist on his brand new demigod-safe iPod Shuffle, courtesy of Apollo. And the setting being specifically Percy Jackson’s stupid powder blue Prius is absolutely irrelevant.

“Alright.” Nico, torn between hiding his blush and giving Will the smile he deserves, settles on a quick kiss instead. “But if I’m wearing your clothes, you’re saving the Darth Vader sweatpants for me,” Nico adds, definitely not flustered by something so simple as a tiny peck on the mouth. Nope, not at all. 

Will must be able to hear Nico’s unholy and possessive thoughts about wearing his clothes, or maybe he’s shocked that Nico initiated physical affection, because his face goes red enough to rival Nico’s own. Kissing is not Nico’s strong suit outside of life-or-death situations. Something about being about to die or being deeply emotionally traumatized in the pits of Tartarus makes him freer with his physical and verbal affections. 

“You can just, uh—” Rarely reduced to stammers, Will stares directly at Nico’s chest, like if he meets Nico’s eyes he’ll cease to exist from embarrassment. His freckles look extra cute under the flush. “You don’t need a reason to borrow my clothes, you know?” 

There are so many dry and terrible jokes Nico wants to make in response. For example: Then give me the shirt you’re wearing right now. Or: I’ll keep that in mind next time my cleaning chore for camp is scrubbing the communal bathrooms. 

Now, Nico says neither of these because he’s too busy being a “gay mess”, as Kayla calls it, but in another, more confident life, he totally does. 

Settling for sarcastic and heavily in denial, Nico’s personal favorite brand of romance, he says, “In your dreams, Sunshine.” 

Thankfully, they’re both saved from acknowledging Nico’s terrible comeback by the sound of the lunch bell.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“And you know what to do if there’s an emergency, right?”

“Yes, Will, for the hundredth time, Kayla and I have this! Relax, man. I promise no one will die while you’re gone.” 

“This is serious, Austin! What if there’s a measles outbreak while I’m gone? Or World War Three starts? Or we have a really, really bad flu season?” 

As the camp’s very own cryptid, Nico gets to silently watch Will have a meltdown about leaving the infirmary in someone else’s hands for a week while he eats his doctor-approved balanced dinner, chewing as quickly as possible so he doesn’t have to think about the fact that he’s eating. Chewing sucks. If Nico could drink all of his meals, he would. 

Nico should find out which god oversees protein shakes and smoothies and offer them a sacrifice. Will doesn’t let Nico have them for every meal, but he gets his fair share, and that’s enough to improve Nico’s will to live. 

Maybe all this time he’s spending with the Apollo cabin is making him more dramatic. (It’s not, Nico knows for a fact that he was always like this, but it’s nice to blame it on someone else.) 

“Demigods probably can’t even get measles, Will.” Austin looks ready to throttle Will into relaxing. Which won’t work. Nico has tried.

Knowing the Apollo kids as well as he does, Nico gives it three seconds until Kayla steps in and says something that completely derails the conversation. 

Three, two, one—

“If demigods could get measles, Nico would already be dead, Will. He’s about as strong as a sickly Edwardian child and as old as one too. And definitely unvaccinated.”

One point to Nico. 

“Why do I feel like sickly Edwardian child is an internet thing?” Nico asks, mostly to himself since he knows none of them are going to pause their argument to answer Nico’s very pressing question.

“Oh my gods, I didn’t even think about Nico being unvaccinated. Nico, are you vaccinated?” Will turns, giving Nico his full attention. Everyone at the Apollo table (which isn’t many, given that it’s the off-season) looks at him expectantly. Nico would love to give them an answer or make some sort of joke, except—

“What does vaccinated mean?” 

This is, evidently, not the correct answer. If the horrified look on Will’s face is anything to go by.

“Nico, as soon as we get back from Oklahoma, we are fixing that.” Nico knows better than to argue with his doctor, so he shrugs, accepts his fate, and shoves another soft carrot into his mouth. Glorious, soft, not-too-much-chewing carrot. 

“Speaking of Oklahoma,” Austin changes the subject, thank the gods. “Are you guys excited?” 

“As excited as I can be to see the ex-girlfriend of my dead best friend with the heroes who abandoned me when I was ten years old and a guy the entire camp lined up to punch.” Nico doesn’t bother to swallow his carrot before speaking. Manners be damned, being a dry sarcastic piece of shit always comes first. 

He’s not sure which is funnier, Will laughing so hard he chokes on his taco or the sight of the blood draining from everyone else’s faces as they try to process if Nico was joking or not. 

“You’re kidding, right?” Austin asks, tugging nervously on one of his thick braids. He tries to smile, but it looks more like a grimace. 

Nico stares unblinking into Austin’s shifting gaze. It’s too easy. He gets to bask in Austin’s uncomfortable squirming for two long seconds before Will steps in. 

“Yes, he’s kidding,” Will says after finally clearing his lungs of stray taco lettuce. The whole Apollo cabin lets out a collective sigh of relief.

Boooo . He never lets Nico have any fun. 

“I mean, it’s mostly true,” Nico tells his dinner plate. Will’s hand sneaks into his under the table, stroking his thumb over Nico’s cold knuckles. Nico decides he can let it go for now. They just don’t understand the true genius of his sense of humor yet like Will does. One day. One day they’ll see. 

“I, for one, am very excited! I haven’t gotten to hang out with Annabeth or Percy since, like, the Battle of Manhattan.” 

Nico forgets how long Will has been here, at Camp Half-Blood. How much history he has with the other campers. Maybe that makes him a bad boyfriend, but Nico has a hard time with interpersonal relationships as it is, much less conceptualizing other people’s. He has to remind himself, often, that Will healed Percy and Annabeth countless times. Hell, he’s heard the story from Percy that Will rode a motorcycle out of battle with him during the Battle of Manhattan. And after that, Will was the head of his cabin. Running camp alongside the hero couple, after the war left the Apollo cabin worse for wear, its oldest member twelve-year-old Will Solace. He’s been running the infirmary all alone since then.

They’ve talked about it before, that it hurts as much as it heals to be in Percy and Annabeth’s presence. Percy reminds Nico of the worst parts of his life, but he was also one of the few people who stood up for him when it mattered — until Jason Grace came around, that is.

For Will, it’s that Percy and Annabeth remind him of the siblings he lost in the war. The people  he failed to save. The couple was close with Lee and Michael in particular, Will’s oldest siblings that Nico barely remembers. He’s not even sure he met them in the short few weeks he was at camp. All he knows is that Percy watched them both die and dragged Will away from looking for their bodies to heal the wounded. To heal Annabeth.  

And Will has said he’s certain that he reminds Percy and Annabeth of losing them, too. Nico has seen them flinch when Will speaks, do double takes when he walks up to them from the corners of their vision. His suspicions were confirmed when Annabeth let it slip, once, that at fifteen Will looks a lot like Lee did. After her comment, Will wouldn’t leave the infirmary for the rest of the day, no matter what Nico tried.

It’s a sore subject for everyone. But Will chooses to see the best in it, that reminding one another of their past isn’t a bad thing. It’s the only way to get closure, to find comfort in the ones who loved the people and things you lost, too. Nico wishes he felt the same way. 

Even what he saw in Tartarus with Will wasn’t enough to change his mind. It helped, but it didn’t magically solve the way Nico’s throat closes every time Percy brings up the past.

Pushing vegetables around his plate instead of actually eating any of them, Nico is pulled out of his thinking by a shadow falling over his dinner. A shadow so tall and wide it could only belong to one man. Or horse. Or horse-man. Is that derogatory? Nico doesn’t know the inner workings of Centaur culture. 

It’s Chiron. The shadow belongs to Chiron.

“Boys, your chauffeur has arrived.” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Their chauffeur is one very excited Percy Jackson and one very tired Annabeth Chase.

She perks up when she spots them cresting the top of the hill and runs halfway up to meet them. 

“Nico! Will!” Blonde braids slap both of them in the face as she throws her arms around them both, squishing their faces against hers. 

Did she get taller ? This is entirely unfair. Nico feels like it should be illegal for him to be this short as a child of the Big Three. How come Annabeth Chase gets to be 6’1” and he’s permanently 5’4”? Will says it probably has to do with his five years of malnourishment followed by intense mental and physical trauma. Nico chooses to believe he is cursed. 

“Hi, Annabeth,” he and Will say at the same time, muffled by the sheer mass of her hair, stray curls at the end catching in Nico’s mouth. Will sounds a lot happier about it than Nico does. 

Nico has to admit he doesn’t mind the hug from Annabeth. They have a strange friendship, one that blossomed from a mutual dunking on Percy, but it’s a friendship nonetheless. The way she hugs him, tall and full and without hesitation, reminds Nico a little bit of Jason. Enough that he has to choke back tears. 

“What am I, chopped liver?” Percy laughs, jogging up the hill to them, throwing his arms around the mass of demigods. Somehow, Nico ends up in the middle. A Nico burrito. It’s warm and a little too safe, like Nico might break into a million pieces when they part if he doesn’t keep his guard up. There will be time to take his walls down later. For now, he has to survive the drive to Oklahoma without having a mental breakdown. 

“Missed you guys,” Nico sniffles against Annabeth’s shoulder, sinking into the feeling of Will to his right and Percy half-pressed against his back. 

He promised himself he would be more open with his feelings after going to Tartarus with Will. Seeing your own emotional constipation manifested as shadow demon cocoa-puffs really forces you to acknowledge you need to change. Easier said than done, but Nico is pretty sure he’s never told either of his old friends that he missed them, so he considers it a great step in the right direction. A rare win for Nico di Angelo.

“We missed you, too.” Percy squeezes them extra hard in his arms one final time, initiating the end of the hug like he knows it’s a ticking time bomb until they all fall apart. When they untangle from one another’s arms, Percy’s green eyes are sea-glassy and his cheeks are blotchy with red spots. Nico is sure he’s in a similar state. No one mentions it. 

“Who’s ready for a family road trip to go see the one-and-only Piper McLean?” Percy smiles wide, distracting from the strain in his voice by pumping a fist in the air. 

“Me!” Will flashes his own megawatt smile, and down the hill they all go to Percy’s minivan.

“Apollo said you had a Prius…” Will questions as they reach the trunk, popping it open to reveal limited trunk space because a third row of seats is up. 

“Yeah, I’m surprised I didn’t total it getting him to camp as Lester.” Percy shakes his head fondly, pushing his mess of black hair out of his eyes. “My mom is letting me borrow her car, or we wouldn’t have enough seats for everyone.”

“Thank gods, I thought I was going to have to sit in the middle seat between Will and Leo for twenty hours.” Nico shudders at the thought. 

“Lucky for you, Calypso is coming, so we needed something with a little more space.” Annabeth takes their suitcases from them, arranging them neatly on top of the bright blue one that is so obviously Percy’s, and places her own gray duffle bag on top. Will’s suitcase is covered in stickers, the original color lost to time, sticking out like a sore thumb in the pile of bags. Places his mom has been on tour with her band, Will said when Nico asked. He used to go with her when he was little, but nowadays she mails him a sticker whenever she goes somewhere new. It looks so lived in next to the rest of their plain suitcases.

“Nico could’ve sat in my lap!” Will says, which earns him a smack to the back of the head as soon as the words leave his mouth. It’s like he wants Nico to kill him. Will is too busy choking on his own laughter to pay the daggers Nico is glaring at him any mind. Even worse, Percy is laughing right along with him. Annabeth, may the gods always favor her, looks at Nico with pity. 

The things they suffer through for the people they love. 

“You’ll regret that later,” Nico grumbles as he walks to his side of the minivan, choosing to sit on the driver’s side so he can kick Percy’s seat to annoy the son of Poseidon if necessary. A tactical maneuver. 

Will has the presence of mind to at least look sheepish as Nico retreats, but Percy remains unfazed, laughing it up until Annabeth has to quite literally remind him to breathe lest he earn the title of Stupidest Reason to Die on Half-Blood Hill. A most dishonorable death unlike any demigod before him. 

It’s what Percy deserves.

Having found the perfect spot to pout in solitude, the backseat of Sally Jackson’s minivan, Nico lets the others finish sorting out their trunk situation. The minivan floor seems to be a graveyard for dead Cheez-It crackers and odd stains. No doubt the doing of Percy’s little sister Estelle. What made these particular Cheez-Its unworthy of love, Nico isn’t sure, but he’s confident Estelle made the right decisions. A benevolent leader with a firm hand. He’s only met her once, but as the daughter of Sally Jackson and Paul Blofis, it would be impossible for her to have a single mean bone in her body. Unlike Nico, who is composed entirely of mean bones. 

“Ready to be stuck with us for the next week?” Percy appears around the side of the car, leaning into Nico’s space with one arm propped up on the open minivan door, ocean eyes sparkling with mischief. What is this, a bad romcom? Why is he standing like that with that stupid smirk on his face? 

“You’re on thin ice, Jackson,” Nico grumbles, wishing he could become one with the tan cloth seat without risking melting eternally into the shadows. If people think Nico is dramatic now, they should see what he would be like with the full range of his powers. He’d disappear for the effect constantly, summon literal shadows to throw metaphorical shade. He would be so cool. 

Curse Will and his stupid Doctor’s Orders to not do any Underworld magic outside of life-threatening situations. 

“Yeah, yeah. When am I not?” Percy laughs his way to the driver’s seat, settling into place behind the wheel. Somehow, Percy Jackson is one of the only demigods at Camp Half-Blood with a legal driver’s license. Despite his track record of crashes, he is apparently a very good driver according to Annabeth. It is (allegedly) not his fault that most of his driving trips end in high-speed monster escapes across busy highways. 

Will and Annabeth climb into their respective seats, and off they go. Eleven hours of non-stop driving here they come.

The light blue minivan takes the off-road trek away from Camp Half-Blood like a champ. By the time they hit the main road, Percy is flipping through radio stations with one hand, trying to get set up for the long drive. First stop: Indianapolis. 

Satisfied with the alternative music station he finds, Percy breaks the silence that had settled inside the car. 

“What kind of music do you listen to, Will?” Mischievous eyes search for Will’s face in the rear-view mirror. 

“I listen to most things. Usually whatever the Apollo cabin decides we’re obsessed with that week. But in my own time… mostly older alternative country music.” 

Will sits ramrod straight, hands gripping tight at his thighs. Nico forgot to look over at him since they left Half-Blood Hill. Has he been this tense the whole time? Why is he squeezing his left cargo pant leg like it owes him money? Nico lifts an eyebrow in Will’s direction, trying to ask silently, but Will refuses to look in his direction, choosing to stare out of the window or at the back of Percy’s head. 

As the two boys chat, Nico can’t help but watch. Like he’s witnessing a train wreck in slow motion. Percy better not be trying to bond with Will. In the few weeks after the war with Gaea, Percy was insufferable. 

It was a constant stream of “ Why aren’t I your type?” this. And “When are you going to introduce us to your new boyfriend?” that.

They weren’t even dating yet! They didn’t get together until after Percy left to be with his mom for the school year alongside Annabeth. This did not stop Percy from making kissy faces over Will’s shoulder  or rude gestures from across the dining hall to fluster Nico. Half the gestures Nico couldn’t even decipher. He just knew they were bad by the horrified look on Jason’s face every time.

(Nico would give anything to see the two of them sitting next to each other again, play fighting over the last brownie on Percy’s plate, blatantly ignoring the camp rules and sitting side by side at the Poseidon table.)

There has been no shortage of teasing in Percy’s absence, though. Austin and Kayla made sure of that. Cecil and Lou Ellen, too. 

…Nico should get friends that don’t get on his nerves for sport. 

“Your mom is a famous country singer, yeah?” Percy is talking to Will, but it’s Annabeth who answers him.

“Naomi Solace! I saw she’s going on tour again this year,” Annabeth turns fully in her seat, her smile so warm it melts some of the stress in Will’s posture. 

“Yeah, but she’s not coming to New York this time so I won’t get to see her.” There’s a sadness in Will’s eyes when he says it. Nico has heard the unspoken pieces of his disappointment before. Naomi knows Will only gets to come see her in concert if she makes a stop in New York, and yet she rarely does. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that she goes out of her way not to stop in New York, given that most bands as famous as Naomi do at least two concerts in the state when they go on tour. 

Will couldn’t give Nico a good reason why, though. His relationship with his mom is a relatively easy one otherwise, a happy childhood followed up by an early deposit at Camp Half-Blood. Nico suspects her avoidance has more to do with the presence of Olympus in New York and, potentially, Apollo, than the presence of Will. 

“We should plan a trip to see one of her concerts.” Nico has already made up his mind before the suggestion leaves his mouth. It would be easy enough (especially if he can get Will to concede to a little bit of shadow-traveling. Just a little bit.)

“You know I hate leaving the infirmary for more than twelve hours at a time.” Will’s left eye twitches. “It was such a nightmare trying to get everything set up for Kayla, Austin, and Chiron today and that was with the promise that Chiron would keep the climbing wall shut down and postpone any special activities and events while I’m gone. I can’t even imagine what that would be like during the Summer when everyone’s there.” Will’s unknown nervousness from before shifts into stress about the infirmary, a sight Nico is much more familiar with. Tan fingers come up to wind their way into golden curls and pull like it’ll relieve some of the pressure in his skull. 

“It was a lot, but that was with short notice. We already have her tour dates, we could know months ahead of time when we’ll be gone. And if you let me shadow-travel us—”

“No!”

“—Oh, come on! I’m sure I’ll be fine by then!” 

Annabeth watches them bicker with a fond expression, one hand dutifully covering her mouth. Laughter escapes despite her best efforts, startling them both out of their back and forth.

“Sorry, sorry, don’t mind me. You two just remind me of someone I know.” Annabeth glances at Percy, sharing some sort of meaningful eye contact that results in Percy wiggling his eyebrows. 

“Gross. Don’t ever make that face again.” Nico scrunches his nose up in disgust, looking to Will for backup but the other boy is pulling at his pants again, face red and stress hunching his posture. What has gotten into him?

“I’ll do whatever I want, thank you very much,” Percy say, and that’s that. Percy turns the radio up, humming along to some Fall Out Boy song that Nico, unfortunately, remembers the words to. 

It takes all of ten minutes for Nico to be bored. Two songs into Percy singing bad early-2000s punk rock to entertain himself, Nico decides he’d rather get a lobotomy than sing along too to stave off his boredom. Who let Percy be responsible for Nico’s taste in music during his early teens? He thought he was so funny, introducing the son of Hades to My Chemical Romance. Not that the Apollo cabin is doing any better. They love stereotyping him. …It works. 

Nico tries to find something else, anything else, to focus on. He misses being able to fiddle with his skull ring, but then he remembers how pretty it looks resting against Will’s clavicle on his camp necklace. Plus, the sun and helm coin from Will that he received in exchange has lots of fiddling potential, too. He reaches into his pocket, thumbs across the raised sun design that matches the tattoo Nico knows is on Will’s chest. Nico lets his eyes wander with the whims of his ADHD. 

Annabeth is curled up reading a book, feet on the dash and knees tucked up to her chin. The blue bandana in her hair holding back her mass of braids is a cool look Nico hasn’t seen her rock before. Her braids are new too, much more blond hair loose out of the bottom now. Probably because she’s not at camp sparring every day. Nico always had to sit through Hazel begging Annabeth to try out new styles. And this one isn’t exactly new , but it is different. More relaxed. More like a regular teenager and not a war hero’s practicality. 

She’s wearing Percy’s sweatshirt, the emblem of a school he no longer attends (read: got kicked out of) on the front. They’re the same size, both Percy and Annabeth unfairly tall and built from years of combat training, but she’s drowning in the sweatshirt. Which definitely means he bought it multiple sizes too big just for her. 

Nico should have known he never had a chance with the guy who purposefully bought his sweatshirts in the size his girlfriend wanted and kept a printed photo of her at Disney in his wallet. Percy is so down bad. Has been since they were fourteen, when Nico first met them. 

Percy is also looking better-for-wear, despite the bags under his eyes. Jason’s death nearly caused him to flunk out of high school, right before graduation. Annabeth brought him to camp a few times in the last month, just to force Percy to get out of the house. To be around people.

They were best friends. 

Percy’s eyes are the stormy-green they always are when he’s upset, black hair grown out so much that it covers his ears and neck now. He’s taken to wearing long sleeves under his random collection of bad meme t-shirts. Today’s says “ Cowabummer, dude!” A terrible choice. Nico loves it. 

Looking at them, here, Nico can imagine they never changed at all. Sure, they’re both older, but the fierceness in their gazes and the kindness in their smiles hasn’t budged one bit. Nico, however…

Nico doesn’t think he’d recognize himself.

Not wanting to dwell on thoughts of those thoughts for too long, Nico looks over to his own boyfriend instead.

Will is staring out the window, tracing the blue sky with his eyes and watching the highway buzz with life around them. His blond curls stick up in every direction, somehow mussed up even though they’ve done nothing, freckles glowing in the sun. Of course, he’s wearing the world’s ugliest cargo shorts and his bright orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. You’d have to pry those stupid shorts off of Will’s dead body, and Nico thinks he still might lose that fight. 

He looks perfect.

Will must be equally bored, right? Nico hopes that whatever had him so nervous has faded by now, and risks reaching a hand out to tap his shoulder. 

It startles Will so bad, he smacks his head against the top of the minivan with his flinch. 

“Everything okay back there?” Percy pauses singing to raise a dark eyebrow at them in the rearview mirror.

“Yep, all good,” Will squeaks back, raising a thumbs up for Percy to see.

Nico stifles his laughter behind his palm, long black bangs falling in front of his eyes. Hiding behind his hair is Nico’s favorite cover for big emotions, the red of his cheeks easily obscured. He should take Piper up on that offer for a haircut while they’re in Oklahoma. Every time he brings up cutting it, though, Will tugs with a pout at the ends of Nico’s hair, now well past his bony shoulders. It curls at the ends, healthier with Nico’s diet and regular washing (products courtesy of Hazel). As long as Will insists it looks good, Nico won’t be touching it. 

The only problem is that sometimes, when he catches his own reflection, Nico thinks he sees Bianca. Her long flowing hair with sections of waves and straight that didn’t have a rhyme or reason, her squared shoulders that begged for someone to try and mess with them, her short stature and scrawny frame that somehow took up too much space and no space at all. He sees her, standing there, in shop windows and car doors, only to catch a glimpse of scars criss-crossing the left side of her face and realize it’s him looking back. His long hair, his squared shoulders, his short stature and scrawny frame. His face, marred, where she was untouched by monsters and fear. Nico is far beyond the age she made it to when she died, but with a twist in his stomach, he realizes she never would have aged anyway, as a huntress. They’d stand next to each other, her sort-of-twelve and him technically-fifteen, and they’d look more like twins than anything else.

“What’s up?” Will leans into Nico’s space after composing himself, embarrassment forgotten, interrupting Nico’s musings. 

“Bored,” Nico whispers back, pulling on his seatbelt so he can close the gap between them and lay his head on Will’s shoulder. Nico swears the divot in Will’s shoulder was crafted for him by Apollo himself, perfect for napping on and crying into. There is no other explanation for how Will’s shoulder is both firmly muscular and soft enough to lie on. 

“Already? We just set out!” Will brings a tan hand up to card through Nico’s hair, already severely tangled by Nico’s mere existence. “I brought a bunch of stuff to do, since I figured you’d forget, Mr. I Don’t Need to Pack Anything.”

See, this? This is why Nico loves William Andrew Solace. 

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Nico smiles, hiding his face in Will’s neck. “What did you pack other than an entire infirmary’s worth of medical supplies?” 

“Shut up.” Will’s grumbling does not, in fact, prompt Nico to shut up. Instead, he impatiently pokes Will in the side as the son of Apollo goes digging for the promised anti-boredom activities in his overstuffed backpack. Nico was joking, but it does look like Will really did shove his backpack full of random medical supplies. You can never be too safe, Nico supposes. Maybe they’ll need specifically Hello Kitty themed bandages for something. 

From the bottom of his bag, Will pulls out the demigod-safe iPod Shuffle. Oh gods, here come those unholy thoughts about sharing earbuds and wearing Will’s hoodies. Too bad they're not in Percy’s Prius, though. Nico really had his heart set on that part of his fantasy. The Jackson family minivan will have to do.

Handing the iPod to Nico to figure out, Will dives back in to rescue a scrunched-up notebook and his handy-dandy pencil case that he brings with him everywhere. It has all of Will’s favorite pens and highlighters for color-coordinating the infirmary schedule.

“Tic-tac-toe?” Will asks, already drawing the boxes and taking the earbud Nico is holding out in offering. The iPod is magic, thankfully, so he needs only think of the playlist he wants, and bam , music starts playing. How the tiny box of metal with no screen would have been of any use to anyone as a normal piece of technology, much less once considered cutting edge, Nico has no idea. There’s a whole era of strange electronic advancements he missed while being in the Lotus Hotel. Trying to find your favorite song on a mortal iPod Shuffle seems like it would be a special kind of torture.

They play five rounds of tic-tac-toe, Nico losing each one, before Annabeth finally butts in. “How are you that bad at this?” She asks, watching, incredulous, as Nico loses for the sixth time in a row. 

“The Christian Devil invented this game, I’m sure of it,” Nico mumbles to himself. 

“It’s a repeating pattern,” Annabeth says, in lieu of acknowledging Nico. “There are specific spaces you have to start on to win and only a handful of possible combinations. If you go first, you shouldn’t be able to lose. You’d tie, at worst.” 

Nico can only stare back at her.

“Wow, that makes me feel so good about myself.” Mother Mother plays quietly in his right ear, exponentially multiplying the amount of self-loathing Nico is feeling. “Obviously I can tell Will’s doing the same thing over and over, I just can’t figure out how to stop him!” 

“Maybe if we play one more round…?” Will giggles, offering Nico the pen. 

“Absolutely not. I think that gave me a headache.” Nico pushes the notebook away, closing his eyes to sulk against Will’s shoulder, head back where it belongs in the divot of Will’s neck. 

Annabeth and Will take up the game after that, which turns into hangman when Percy decides he’s feeling left out. It’s all for naught, though, because every one of Percy’s letter suggestions for all three rounds end up being incorrect and lose them the game. 

“This feels like it shouldn’t be possible. You are a statistical anomaly for bad guessing.” Will stares in equal parts confusion, awe, and horror as they fail to guess the word demigod because Percy suggested Z and Q before going for any vowels other than A. Surely Percy is doing this on purpose? The look on Annabeth’s face suggests otherwise.

“How much longer until we’re in Indianapolis?” Nico groans, reaching to turn the music in their headphones up now that their game is over. 

“Do not start with me, Zombie Dude,” Percy sasses right back. “We are not playing the Are We There Yet game.”

“Maybe I miss being an annoying little shit.” Nico kicks the back of Percy’s seat, exactly why he sat here in the first place, and starts repeating “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Until Will and Annabeth dissolve into laughter at Percy’s refusal to acknowledge Nico’s existence. 

Unrelated, Percy immediately pulls off of the highway and into the nearest McDonald’s drive-thru, claiming to be hungry. 

Nico takes bribes. And McDonald’s chicken nuggets are the ultimate bribe. 

They settle into comfortable silence again, Percy’s music fully blocked out now that Nico has possession over both earbuds, when Will opens up Nico’s discarded Happy Meal box. Inside, the plastic-wrapped kid’s toy sits, untouched. He lifts it gently out of the box, points to it and then to Nico, mouthing “You didn’t want the toy?” 

And he, like, totally does want the toy. Of course Nico wants the toy. He was planning on rescuing it the moment no one was looking at him. What other reason is there to get a Happy Meal? Especially when the current toy selection is all Mario-themed. 

It’s clear Will can see his thought process, used to Nico’s quirk of hiding his excitement for things he sees as childish, and places the toy in Nico’s open waiting hands.

Unable to stop himself, Nico leans over and kisses Will, lightning fast. Too excited about his toy to stop and think, he tears into the packaging to reveal a small plastic Peach action figure. 

She’s adorable, tiny pink umbrella perched in her hands. Her head and arms are just adjustable enough to be considered an action figure. 

Nico can’t wait to put it in his cabin. 

When he looks back up, Will is smiling at him with matching excitement, asking with hand gestures to see it up close. It’s while he’s handing the toy over to Will that Nico notices both Percy and Annabeth stealing glances into the backseat to watch him, twin sad smiles on their faces. 

Man, does that hurt. 

It carves a tiny pit into Nico’s stomach. He can feel the enjoyment over this moment with Will fading fast from his body. Percy and Annabeth don’t risk another look back, aware that Nico’s eyes are on them, but their expressions remain the same. 

Nico wants to believe there’s no pity in their smiles. Will would tell him there’s no pity in their smiles.

Nico looks closer. They seem genuinely happy, but the tiny bit of sadness is in their eyes, not their mouths. It takes a moment before Nico can place the expression. 

Guilt.

Guilt, perhaps, that Nico hides this part of himself. Guilt that Nico feels shame every time he speaks too loud or too fast or talks with his hands. Guilt that Nico sees everything he was and feels as though it’s everything he shouldn’t be. Guilt that it’s definitely at least a little bit their fault that Nico chose solitude. Despite being loud and excitable himself, Percy found Nico annoying. Despite always having a million questions herself, Annabeth found Nico’s questions overbearing. Was he a literal child? Yes. Were they teenagers going through their own things? Yes. Does Nico reserve the right to be upset about it, anyways? …Yes.

And yet, when Nico forces his gaze back to Will, finding nothing but love in his expression as he turns the Peach figurine over in his hands, he can’t help but think that it’s okay if all of those questions are answered with yes. Because he has something new, now. 

Nico is not allowed to have nice thoughts. Nice thoughts are when bad things happen.

The second Percy merges back onto the highway, the brakes make a sound not unlike what Nico imagines a small rodent would sound like if fed through a wood chipper. 

“Of course. It was hopeful thinking that we would get through this without some kind of divine interference,” Percy grumbles, pulling over calmly despite the loud clanking the minivan makes in protest. “Alright, everyone out in case this thing blows.” Percy says this as if it’s a daily occurrence and therefore nothing to worry about. Nico is, in fact, worried about a car blowing up while he’s next to or inside of it. He’s seen action movies. Cars go boom .

They all crawl out of the passenger side doors, wary of the fast-passing traffic on the other side. The sheer speed at which cars fly past them makes Nico’s skin crawl.

The cold wind whipping by adds to the noise and chill. The shiver barely finishes wracking Nico’s body before Will opens the car door again to fish out his favorite yellow sweatshirt, passing it to Nico. 

“Catching a cold would make this week a lot worse than it needs to be.” 

Nico slips on the sweatshirt, ignoring Will’s comment in favor of savoring the smell of Will enveloping him, pressing the too-long sleeves up to his face under the guise of shielding his cheeks from the wind. It’s a strange smell— lemon antibacterial wipes and hyacinths. 

Does Nico have a smell? He hopes not. If he does, it’s probably like… dirt and sweat. Ew. 

“So there’s good news and bad news! Which do you want first?” Annabeth hollers at them from the hood of the car, watching Percy dig through the machine’s innards, elbow-deep. 

“Uhh… good news?” Will answers, shutting the minivan door and walking over. 

The sunset paints Will in gorgeous oranges and purples. Nico can’t help but wish they were at camp right now, sitting on the docks and watching the sun go down hand in hand, instead of watching Percy play Go Fish in his mom’s broken car. Not that Percy doesn’t look good in the sunset lighting too, or that his dark hair doesn’t reflect the flecks of purple more intensely than Will’s golden curls do, but that’s irrelevant. 

“Good news is nothing is broken!” Annabeth smiles wide, gesturing for Will to get a closer look at what Percy is doing. 

“Bad news?” Nico crowds the spot too, trying to peer inside. Will’s eyes go wide. 

A writhing mass of brown. Sand-colored scales wrapping and unwrapping and slipping between parts. Beady black eyes. 

“The bad news is, we have a snake problem.” Percy didn’t need to say that. Seems obvious now that they’re all leaning over the hood of the car and can see the spaghetti bowl they’re making out of the engine and various other car parts Nico can’t even pretend to know.

“Κεράστης.” Because of course Annabeth Chase would know. Cerastes.

Chapter Text

Thankfully, Cerastes are not particularly strong or vicious monsters. They are, however, very slippery. And a huge inconvenience. 

“They don’t have spines,” Annabeth supplies, watching as Percy fails to grasp one for the hundredth time. It’s impossible to grab them when they’re essentially big mystical tubes of wet, muscley, noodle. They fit in every nook and cranny of the hood of the minivan, and Percy’s perseverance is fading fast. “I remember them being a little more… vicious? In the myths?”

“And why shouldn’t I just drive around with them in here?” There’s no need to answer, Percy already knows. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be shoulder deep in ball-of-snake. 

“I don’t understand. Why aren’t they fighting back? Why aren’t we fighting them?” Nico shifts from foot to foot, fidgeting with his pocket coin. Any moment now, these strange creatures will decide to turn hostile and Percy is going to get bitten. 

“I don’t want to stick my sword in here and damage the car.” Percy grimaces as his hand makes contact with something hot. Probably the engine. Again, Nico does not know anything about cars and will not pretend to know. 

“I hear you, I see you, but also — what are we supposed to do?” Will is as tense as Nico, probably trying to remember whatever hymn cures venomous snake bites for Percy’s inevitable future. 

“Wait, I have an idea.” There’s a collective sigh of relief from all the boys before Annabeth even finishes getting the words out. 

“Thank the fucking gods.” Percy pulls his hand out, and they all choose to ignore how red and irritated it looks. They’ll find him a river or something later. Or maybe a water bottle will do. Nico swears Percy’s powers extend to more and more water adjacent things every time they fight together. 

“They’re supposed to lure their prey in by looking like prey themselves, because of the little horns on their head, and then wind up their limbs and choke them out… but that’s clearly not happening.” Annabeth ignores the horror on Percy’s face.

“And you told me to stick my arm in there?!”

“It would have gotten them out of the engine! That’s all I had! But it’s whatever, new plan.” Going to the trunk for her duffle bag, Annabeth comes back a few minutes later with a pair of long, celestial bronze sticks in her hand. 

“What on Earth are those?” Nico asks, eyeballing Annabeth’s strange new choice of weapon with trepidation. Who knows what sort of torture device they turn into if they came from the Athena cabin.

“Celestial Bronze hair pins. From Drew. Not sure why she took pity on me and my hairdo struggles but I knew these would come in handy eventually.” Annabeth holds them out. “Time to make some snake kebabs.” 

It takes them at least an hour to find and stab every Cerastes with deadly precision, taking turns and keeping score by speed and accuracy. 

Will needs some convincing to participate. He shakes his head, saying he “wasn’t born a fighter”, and he’s a little green in the face from the mere presence of snakes, but somehow Annabeth convinces him to give it a shot anyways. Which is great, because he ends up being the fastest and the most accurate of them, by far. It was worth it just to watch the joy on Will’s face and the way he stuck his tongue out to concentrate. Secret talent uncovered! Snake skewering! For a child of Apollo, this is great news. If Python ever comes back as a tiny garden snake, Will will be the perfect guy for the job. 

Percy, of course, comes dead last. Annabeth has to take the pin from him to avoid him putting any holes in the delicate car parts. 

“You clearly weren’t a whack-a-mole kid,” Will tells Percy, which Nico straight-up does not understand in the slightest. It must be a pretty scathing insult to Percy, though, given how he pouts about it afterward.

By the time they’ve rid Sally Jackson’s minivan of its other-worldly snake problem, there’s a significant amount of golden dust covering everything inside the hood.

“It should be fine…” Percy squints at the solid two inches of monster dust.

They all choose to ignore it, piling back into the minivan one by one. 

“Well, I can say with certainty that those were the dumbest, lowest-stakes monsters I’ve ever fought.” Percy stares at the wheel for a few seconds, like he can’t quite believe that’s all they had to do, before starting the car. 

“I’m almost insulted.” Nico wipes his monster-dust caked hands on his jeans. A huge mistake, he’s going to be sparkly for days. 

“I, for one, am grateful. And I hope we don’t encounter anything else. You danger-seeking masochists.” Will sinks into his seat with a huff, searching through his backpack until he finds a container of wet wipes to pass to Nico. His hero. The texture was killing him.

“I’m fifty-fifty right now. Ask me in a few hours when we’re all bored again if I wish an actual monster would attack us.” Annabeth gestures for Nico to hand her one of the wet wipes and sets to wiping herself down first, then Percy, like he’s a toddler who just finished eating mac and cheese with his hands. One finger at a time, then the corners of his mouth and each cheek. 

She discovers a cut on Percy’s chin halfway through her wet wipe bath (how he got a cut on his face during that, Nico has no idea) and Will gets to use his Hello Kitty Band-Aids after all. Percy specifically requests one without even knowing Will has them. Nico should stop tarnishing Will’s name when it comes to packing quest supplies. Guy knows what he’s doing. 

“You know, I had a dream last night that you would only take a Hello Kitty Band-Aid, and that’s exactly why I packed these.” Will stares at the package, impressed with himself. The gift of prophecy strikes again. 

Annabeth ends up getting the answer to her question, because it’s smooth sailing from there on out, and she looks about ready to tear her book in half for something to do. By the time midnight rolls around, their ninth hour on the road, they’re all starting to wish for an empousa. Or even a gorgon. Though, Percy is strangely fond of those and doesn’t like killing them. Maybe zombies? They wouldn’t be particularly hostile, but Nico could definitely summon some zombies to fight. Something, anything , for their collective ADHD to do.

When they finally reach Indianapolis, Nico is sure he’s going stir crazy. And, as it turns out, Will can get carsick. The last two hours of their eleven hour drive are spent with Will’s head stuck out the window, desperately sucking down fresh air. 

Nico thinks it’s unfair that children of Apollo can get sick at all. Seems like a scam. Nico would want a refund.

Like, it makes sense that Nico is a living nightmare and constantly near death, he’s a son of Hades. Right on brand. A child of Apollo, the god of medicine and doctors, getting sick ? Rude.

As Percy pulls the minivan into a parking lot smack in the middle of Indianapolis, Annabeth points to an impressive red brick building with a tall clock tower at the end of the plaza. 

“The Indianapolis Union Station. Or, as local demigods call it, The Waystation.” Nico appreciates Annabeth’s tour-guide-like narration of everything they’ve come across so far. Really minimizes the amount of questions he has to worry about asking for twenty minutes before giving up and never asking at all. 

Where The Indianapolis Union Station ends and the Waystation begins is obvious. The mortal facade of the building is worn with time, oxidized copper details and sun roasted awnings are barely visible in the dark. The portion of the building shrouded by the mist is much better taken care of, metal and brick clean enough to reflect the moonlight in such a way that half of the building almost looks like it’s glowing. 

Outside, waiting barefoot at the edge of the parking lot under a yellowing streetlamp, are Leo and Calypso, hand in hand. 

Leo looks worse for wear, more tired than Nico has ever seen him, and he saw Leo the second he touched down at camp after rescuing Calypso. The bags under his eyes are heavy, his hair grown out and unkempt, long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail if he wanted to. He’s not even wearing his tool belt. Seeing Leo in only gray sweatpants and a white tank top feels wrong . No Mr. Hot Shot act in sight. It could be the late hour or the lack of light, but even Leo’s gaze seems dull and his smile sits forced on his face. 

It strikes Nico now that Leo didn’t get to see Jason after he returned with Calypso. Piper and Jason were already at school in Oklahoma when Leo made it to Camp Half-Blood, and they had to immediately set off for Indiana with Meg and Apollo in tow to complete Apollo’s quest. Leo thought he would get to see Jason in California, while warning Camp Jupiter of the oncoming attack, but only saw his coffin. Leo’s best friend, gone forever, except there’s no hunt or anticipation like there was after Leo’s death. No physician’s cure. No hope. Jason was truly gone. 

What a great thought to have as he gets out of the car to say hello. 

“My man!” Percy sprints out of the car as soon as he throws it into park, running and jumping into Leo’s arms. Leo, being about half Percy’s height, gets very aggressively bulldozed over and they both go tumbling onto the sidewalk. 

“Percy!” 

Ignoring the two boys making inappropriate noises and rolling around on the ground together, Calypso and Annabeth exchange a quick hug. 

Nico almost hits concrete himself when he tries to hop out of the car, overestimating his ability to walk after an eleven hour drive. He likes to think he recovers smoothly, catching himself on the side of the minivan and making his way over to the small group on shaky legs. There’s nothing Nico wants more right now than to flop face first into the nearest available bed and snore away. 

“Nice to see you again,” Nico says to Calypso, offering a hand so he doesn’t get pulled into a hug as well. Calypso seems more than pleased by this, shaking his hand readily with a nod.

“Likewise, son of Hades.” 

Her wheat colored hair shines in the moonlight, and Nico sees the sorrow in her dark eyes. She’s older than most gods Nico has met, so it’s safe to say the depth to her expression and emotions could very well be her usual face, but something about the purple under her eyes and the puff to her cheeks make the pain seem fresh. 

Is she grieving alongside Leo for a man she never knew? No doubt Leo talked about Jason and Piper their whole flight on Festus back to Camp Half-Blood. What shocked Nico the most about Leo’s disappearance was that not even Jason knew about his plans with the physician’s cure. Jason always seemed to be at the center of Leo’s world, in the short time Nico spent with them both. Enough that Nico thought that, maybe, he and Leo had a little more in common than the other teen was willing to let on…

It takes a few minutes for Calypso and Annabeth to detangle their boyfriends from one another. Will and Nico share more than one long-suffering look that says something along the lines of “Why are straight boys the way they are?”  

“I didn’t know you guys were bringing Gerard Way and the yellow Care Bear with you!” Leo pulls Will and Nico into an unwilling group hug. It is decidedly not the same as getting pulled into an unwilling group hug by Annabeth. Nico hates it immediately. 

Squirming out of Leo’s hold, which is pretty easy given they’re almost the exact same size and Nico has the advantage of making himself a little bit incorporeal, Nico brushes his shirt off and steps to the side. 

“Good to see you haven't gotten any less annoying,” Nico huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. Will finishes the hug out with Leo in a more normal way, and offers the shorter boy a smile and a wave, even though they’re two feet away from each other. Dork.

“Thank you! I’ll take that as a compliment.” If Will’s smile is the sun, Leo’s beaming smile is a fluorescent light. Nico has to tamp down the urge to shield his eyes from the sheer synthetic force of it. Leo turns with a flourish, gesturing to the looming brick building behind him. “Welcome to my new humble abode! Mi casa es su casa y all that! Who’s ready for a tour?” 

Large metal doors open up to a large cathedral-like hall. Wrought-iron catwalks, stairways, and ladders crisscross the space, which seems to serve several core functions at once. There’s a gigantic chef’s kitchen, a corner dedicated to what looks like a workshop, large sofas and chairs pushed together to create multiple makeshift living rooms, and even some chicken coops stuffed up in the ceilings along the crown molding. Nico’s head spins trying to take it all in. His eyes can’t decide where to look, left and right and left again and up and down and behind. When he looks behind him, it’s clear that the door at their backs is not the one they entered through… 

“Don’t be alarmed,” Leo says, which does nothing to soothe Nico’s alarm. “The Waystation is alive, in a way. Gives you the rooms you’re looking for, makes new ones when you need them, stuff like that.” 

“Like the Labyrinth?” Percy asks, sounding just as upset about it as Nico feels. He hates the Labyrinth. So does Percy. These two things are related.

Leo nods, unfazed by this comparison. Maybe it’s a son of Hephaestus thing? Harley sure doesn’t seem afraid of the Labyrinth, if his inclination to keep making them do obstacle courses through the damned thing is any indication. 

They don’t get time to dwell on it, though, because Leo chooses a random ramp and by the time Nico blinks they’re walking down a dim hallway, lit only by the light of the moon filtering through skylights. Identical black doors line each side. 

“Emmie and Jo run the place, ex-huntresses turned wives, and take care of their daughter Georgina here. It was originally a safehouse for the huntresses, but now it’s open to demigods who are stuck in the Midwest or who want to live out here but can’t strike it on their own.” Leo has his back turned, walking arm in arm with Percy, so Nico doesn’t feel too bad about visibly flinching at the mention of the Hunters of Artemis. 

Apollo had filled Will and Nico in on the more basic details of why Leo and Calypso decided to stay in the middle of nowhere and how it could possibly be safe. Every time Nico thinks he’s seen it all in terms of random pockets of demigods across the world, he finds something even newer and weirder than before. Apollo had not, however, mentioned that it was a regular stopping point for Artemis and her hunters. Nico is rethinking staying the night here.

“It’s been awesome. I’ve been helping Jo fix up the place and make improvements, Festus gets all the space to fly that he wants, and Calypso is practicing her magic with Emmie’s help. We really like it here. Right, babe?” 

Calypso, who had been silent up until this point, nods and speaks only to Annabeth when she says, “It’s been very… normal here. Going to high school after living for millennia is certainly a unique experience.” 

“You’ll have to come back and actually stay and see Indianapolis sometime! There are some cool abandoned train stations and warehouses that I know you’d love, Annabeth, and Percy is legally obligated to see downtown. There’s so much to do! How’s New Rome? You two have to tell me all about your new college life!” Nico completely tunes out Leo’s rambling. How does he have so much energy? He’s gesturing wildly as he tells a story about downtown Indianapolis, bouncing his way down the hall. It’s two in the fucking morning. Nico’s knees and ankles feel like lead from sitting for so long. He’s almost positive he feels worse from the car ride than if everyone let him shadow-travel them all to Oklahoma. At least then he’d be able to feel his fingers and toes. 

“So there are technically different wings for boys and girls.” From the way Leo stops moving, actually turning to look at them all as he speaks, Nico assumes he’s saying something important and tunes back in. He’s walking up front, next to Percy, but he’s so loud Nico has no doubts they could be fifty feet behind and Nico would still hear him. “But I managed to convince Emmie and Jo that it was a pretty arbitrary rule for you guys. Since, like, Will and Nico are gay, so if what they’re trying to prevent is hanky panky that’s not going to work. And I already warned them that you and Annabeth won’t be separating under any circumstances.”

Nico and Will both go bright red at Leo’s suggestion, glancing at each other before quickly looking away. They are barely in the kissing on the mouth stage. Hanky panky is definitely not on their list of activities for tonight. No thank you. 

Embarrassment aside, Nico is shocked at how thoughtful it was of Leo to bring up Percy and Annabeth’s sleeping situation to the Waystation’s guardians beforehand. When they were still at camp for Summer session, the couple had to beg Chiron for special rules. Percy kept waking the entire camp up by summoning storms in his sleep from his terrible nightmares. Annabeth slept in the Poseidon cabin for the rest of the Summer. According to Will, it was only fair that Percy and Annabeth got special doctor’s orders rules because of Tartarus-related PTSD if Nico did. (Lame, Nico likes being special.) 

Chiron’s required trade-off, though, was that Percy and Annabeth sit through a safe-sex talk with the head of the infirmary… Will Solace. A full two years younger than them, and a virgin. 

All three of them refuse to discuss the experience. Patient-doctor confidentiality, and all that. The only thing Will told Nico was that he wasn’t worried about any accidental pregnancies. And the way he said it left Nico with a lot of questions he was not willing to ask in any way, shape, or form. 

For Leo to remember and save them a repeat begging, despite not even being there to witness the original ordeal, only hearing about it through the camp gossip grapevine— color Nico surprised. Nico has a hard time remembering that people do things for others without asking for anything in return. He’s working on it.

Not that Leo isn’t usually a nice guy. Sure, Nico had a hard time warming up to Leo because of his over-confident front, but Jason always insisted that Leo cared deeply about all of his friends. It was more subtle, but it was there. He remembers almost everything you tell him about yourself, makes you things you didn't even know you needed, pulls everyone into conversations to give them a chance to speak. Once he knew what to look for, Nico had a much easier time stomaching Leo's presence. Plus, humor as a deflection tactic and coping mechanism is something Nico is deeply familiar with. 

“Did you hear that, kids? No hanky panky!” Percy calls back to them, and Nico suddenly wishes Leo never did him any favors, ever. 

Will, in an extremely uncharacteristic move, lets go of Nico’s hand to flip Percy off , which receives howling laughter from everyone else in return. And maybe, maybe, some giggles from Nico. He’ll never tell. 

It lasts all the way until the first room they stop at. Great, because Nico was starting to feel like the brick hallways were endless. Not a good feeling when he’s still thinking about the Labyrinth. 

“Nico, Will, your room awaits!” Leo opens the door to a rather modest room with two small twin beds inside, a chest at the end of each meant to store their suitcases. “Bathrooms are down the hall and to the left. I’d make more jokes but Nico already looks like he’s picturing every way he could kill me really slowly, so I’m gonna go show Percy and Annabeth their room! Peace out, Boy Scouts.” 

The heavy wooden door swings shut behind them and just like that, they’re alone. 

“Well… time for bed, I guess.” Will raises an eyebrow at the accommodations but makes no comment. He smiles his usual sunny smile, places his suitcase at the foot of the bed closest to the door, and opens it to root around for his bedtime supplies. Nico beats him to it, with only three things to choose from in his suitcase. 

The artificial light is a warm orange, bathing the room in sunset colors like earlier in the night when they were outside fighting the Cerastes. Will looks equally good in here, golden hair a halo of fire as it reflects the light. It’s low enough to give the whole room a blurry, soft sort of feeling. Something warm and nostalgic stirs in Nico’s stomach as he watches Will gather an absurd amount of items in his arms to carry to the bathroom, precariously balanced.

It’s domestic. Nico stalks over to take the top couple of items off of Will’s pile and add them to his own, Will no longer in danger of toppling over. Nico thinks back to when he and Bianca went to boarding school together, however brief it was, and remembers getting ready for bed like this. Gathering their things, side by side, and running down the halls to see who could be done faster. Last one back had to make the bed in the morning. Bianca always let Nico win.

Nico stares into Will’s kind eyes, a mere few inches between them. He narrows his own, black slits in the reflection of shining blue. Who’s to say he can’t have something like that again?

“Race you to the bathrooms.”

“Nico, no!” 

They take off running down the hall, Will struggling to keep all of his things in his hands as he bolts for it, usually faster than Nico but weighed down by his armful of toiletries.

Shouldering the door open, Nico beats him there, laughing and panting. He dumps his things on the large counter inside.

“No fair! You had a head start!” Will huffs with uneven breaths behind him. The two make eye contact in the wall-length mirror over the counter. “Cheater.”

“Nuh-uh! I am an opportunist ,” Nico picks his pajamas out of his pile and walks into the closest stall, peeling off his skinny jeans and band t-shirt. The jeans are a bit of a fight, sweaty from their encounter with the Cerastes. More than that, Nico has definitely gained a bit of weight. It might be time to call it quits on squeezing into these jeans, too. He’s a little sad to see them go. He’s lost a lot of his favorite clothing items to his new healthy lifestyle. 

Thankfully, it doesn’t even come close to outweighing the immense pleasure Nico takes in feeling stronger and better and looking more like himself again in the mirror. That, and the way Will looks at him when he takes his shirt off to go swimming now. Beaming with pride, eyes trailing every scar like they’re a treasure map. If Nico could bottle up that stare and take it with him everywhere he went, he’d never have another self-deprecating thought again.

Nico’s relationship with his body was never great, being a malnourished, homeless teen, slowly becoming one with the shadows, filled with rage and internalized homophobia — but this feels like the start of something better. Of feeling like he belongs here, in this pile of flesh, and could even learn to enjoy seeing it every once in a while. His. Not just to borrow, for a time, but to take care of. His to enjoy.

When he’s done changing, Nico exits the stall in a clean band t-shirt and boxers to brush his teeth, finding Will already changed and halfway through brushing his own. 

“What, did you speedrun putting your PJs on? How did you do that?” Nico is almost offended he was so much slower getting changed. Any annoyance fades into a wayward giggle as he catches sight of Will in his striped blue pajama pants and fuzzy slippers. Will’s t-shirt is so faded it takes Nico a second to realize he knows what the sun art in the center is from. “I didn’t know you listened to Sublime.” 

“I didn’t go into a stall,” Will admits with a blush, talking around his toothbrush. “And this is actually my mom’s old shirt. I stole it to wear as pajamas forever ago.” He rinses as Nico starts brushing, trading him his spot at the sink. “I didn’t know you listened to Sublime either.”

“Percy,” is the only explanation Nico gives around his toothbrush. 

“Wow, that was so descriptive and helpful, thank you so much.” Nico nods back. He is very descriptive and helpful, isn’t he? How kind of him. “You suck,” Will laughs. 

They stand in comfortable silence until Nico is done, helping one another gather their things for the trek back.

“Boxers only kind of guy?” They’re walking down the hall again, side by side. Will isn’t even looking in Nico’s direction when he asks, and he’s seen Nico in swim shorts and shirtless, but it still makes Nico blush. 

“No… I forgot to pack pajama pants.” 

They have a good laugh about it all the way back to their shared room.

Neither boy has much to say as they settle into bed. They turn the lights off, crawl under the covers of their respective beds, and lie in the quiet. Nico, still as a statue on his back, listens as Will tosses and turns. 

The bump of Will’s hand against the sheets as it flops down. The glide of Will’s legs under the sheets. The rustle of Will fluffing his pillow. 

He can’t sleep. And neither can Nico.

Falling asleep is not the strong suit of Hades’ or Apollo’s children. 

Nico tries counting sheep, but he keeps getting interrupted around fifteen when Will moves again. He tries entertaining himself by fiddling with the texture of the covers. It’s a repeating woven pattern, but he can only run his fingers over it so many times before getting bored.

Okay, Nico can’t do this anymore. 

They’re going to have to do that thing where they talk until they fall asleep. Nico has decided this for them. 

“Are you awake?” Nico figures it’s courteous to ask, even though he can totally tell that Will is awake. But if Will would like to pretend he’s asleep, that’s up to him.

“No.” Will’s voice is muffled by his pillow. Nico can’t see him, the blackout curtains do their job well, but if he had to guess, Will is laying face first into the mattress after giving up on getting comfortable. Drama king. (Relatable.)

Trying to decide what to say next, Nico pulls his covers all the way up to his chin. He didn’t think this far ahead. But there is one thing that’s been on his mind all day, and being surrounded by darkness always makes Nico braver. 

”Something was bothering you, earlier, when we first got in the car. Did Percy and Annabeth say something to you while you were putting the suitcases away?” Nico holds his breath. 

There’s no answer for a long while. 

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe Nico misinterpreted Will’s fidgeting for nervousness. Maybe Will already forgot what was wrong. Gods, Nico hates trying to navigate the minefield of other people’s emotions. It does not come easy to him. All of his skill in reading emotions came as a requirement for his survival as a homeless twelve year old boy. How to tell who is genuine, who is evil, who is out to get him, who cares. Using those skills like this? It activates Nico’s fight-or-flight response out of instinct. But he doesn’t want to fight Will or run away from him. He wants the opposite, actually. 

“Um, it’s silly. You’re going to laugh at me.” Will’s voice is quiet, almost imperceivable. Nico would have missed the words if he wasn’t straining for them. 

“You would flay me alive for saying that.” And it’s true. Every time Nico is nervous to do or say something because he’s sure Will is going to think less of him, Will makes a new PowerPoint presentation about how much he adores Nico and how he would never ever find anything he feels to be stupid. Checks out the one camp laptop and everything. 

“If you’re feeling it, or it happened to you, then it’s important to me. No matter how stupid you think it is.” Will had told him once while they were crammed together in the infirmary closet, stocking the shelves. Nico had started feeling fuzzy from the tight space, his brain chanting jar, jar, jar at an alarming rate, and thought it was stupid to voice that he needed to go take a breather. After all, he obviously was not in that jar, and it had been weeks since a small space had bothered him. It felt like admitting that Will’s presence wasn’t enough to comfort him or fix it. 

Back then, he thought Will had to be the answer to everything. That Will caring about him and being there should have been the cure to all his ails. 

He knows better now. 

Dismissing his PTSD symptoms as unworthy of attention is the number one way to earn himself a lecture from every single one of his friends. And relying on Will to be the Band-Aid to his self-loathing and mental health issues would not, a healthy relationship, make. 

”I hate when you’re right.” A small, anxious laugh tumbles from Will’s mouth. The sound of rustling sheets and the protesting squeak of the bed tells Nico that Will is turning towards him to talk, despite not being able to see one another. “It’s just… When you went to sit in the car, and everyone stopped laughing, Percy was looking at me funny. So I asked him what was up. And…” This time, when Will laughs, it’s more genuine. Nico can picture the warm smile that cracks across his face from the tone of his voice. “He looked at me and said you must really love me. And that it’s obvious how much I love you.”

Oh. Oh. 

Those three little words, how complicated they were. They were necessary to survive Tartarus. And it was true, they do love each other. Dark places, like the actual depths of Super Hell, make for a good reason to let someone know that you love them.

And yet… they haven’t said it since returning to the surface. Fifteen feels young to admit to being in love. But sometimes demigods only get half as many. And that’s what this is, isn’t it? 

Love? 

Nico knows for a fact, from fate itself, that Will is his soulmate. So what’s stopping them?

Nico thinks of Jason and Piper. They, too, had said those three words to each other over and over, driven together by war and false memories. At seventeen, that turned out to be too young. Piper hadn’t discovered everything about herself there was to discover, and Jason didn’t judge her for a second, like he didn’t judge Nico. No, he turned around and laid his life down so that she could discover what it meant to be her. Without him. Without them . And that’s also love, Nico supposes. 

Piper said she still loved Jason. She loved Jason for who he was, for all the kindness he showed her, for loving her back as she was and not as other people saw her. Platonically. Which isn’t any less powerful than romantically, just… different. And not the same way Jason felt about her in return. 

But it’s still love. They weren’t wrong that they loved each other, they were wrong about how they loved each other. Nico can live with that, if that’s what happens to him and Will.

And Nico might not be ready to trust Percy with a lot of things, yet, but he does trust Percy to know what love is. Percy loves Annabeth. Percy loves his mother. Deeply, and with a great understanding of what that means to him and what it means to feel that love in return. Knowing love doesn’t come easy to many demigods like it does to Percy Jackson, and that was exactly what his mom wanted by raising him the way she did. So for Percy to see him and Will and call it as he saw it, so easily and so plainly… Nico will trust him, just this once. 

Nico takes the leap of faith.

“Well, it’s true. I do love you.” Nico speaks the words into existence.

“I— I love you too.” Will whispers the words like they’re too precious to say any louder. 

Raw emotion swells in Nico’s tear ducts. He can’t control it. Once the tears start, they don’t stop. Each drop is perfectly silent, undetected by Will a mere six feet away. 

Six feet feels too far away.

An urge takes over Nico’s body. Maybe it’s the love he feels oozing free from his heart. Maybe it’s the exhaustion from their day. Maybe it’s the knowledge that this week Nico is going to have to face Jason being gone for the first time since Nico felt his soul sever from the mortal realm. Maybe it’s the thrill of knowing that he can ask, that he and Will are alone and there’s nothing to stop him from speaking up.

Only God and Will are here to judge him, and God’s not real and Will never would. 

A lump formed in his throat when the tears started, and Nico has to croak around it to speak again. “Do we have to sleep in separate beds?” 

There’s a sharp intake of breath. A long pause. 

“I don’t see why we would have to sleep in separate beds, no.” Will’s voice is shaky, ripe with an emotion Nico can’t place. 

“...Only if you’re comfortable with it.” 

There’s no verbal response, only the creak of Will’s bed as he gets up and silently crosses the small room to Nico’s own bed. Nico can barely make out the shape of him hovering over there, the room is so dark. He takes a second to quickly wipe the tears from his eyes, hiding the evidence of his emotional dam breaking.

“Scoot over, then, oh Lord of Darkness.” Nico can see an attempt to hide nerves when he sees one, but he does Will the favor of pretending he can’t and scoots over without protest. Really, it’s because he’s just as nervous as Will sounds. 

Nico can’t remember the last time he slept next to someone in a proper bed. Cuddling for comfort on their quest in Tartarus hardly counts, accidentally taking a nap side by side on an infirmary cot doesn’t hold the same weight with all of their friends and other campers around. Nico often lays his head on Will’s shoulder to catch a quick wink at the campfire, or during arts and crafts, or anywhere really. Will’s favorite place to take an impromptu nap is with his head in Nico’s lap. 

None of those things are this. 

None of those things are Will Solace, warm and real — and is he glowing? Because Nico can suddenly see the room again. Oh, if that doesn’t melt Nico’s guarded heart — sliding underneath covers next to Nico in his cotton pajama pants and that old ratty t-shirt. Nico feels a little bit underdressed for the occasion in long boxers and the Ramones shirt he plans to wear tomorrow.

They lay shoulder to shoulder, perfectly parallel, cramped in the small bed and stiff as a board. 

“Is this okay?” Will asks, breathless. Every nerve where Will’s arm and leg line up with his is singing with static. 

“It could be more comfortable,” Nico admits, equally out of breath when he laughs. They’re so bad at this. How are they both so awkward? They can confess their undying love, they can survive Hell together, but they can’t do this? It’s hilarious that their friends are probably two rooms away accusing them of doing the hanky panky when they can’t even lie next to one another without feeling so embarrassed they want to burst out of their skin. Nico doesn’t even know how to hanky panky. 

“Right, right,” Will giggles, purposefully loosening the tension in his posture. Feeling him relax against Nico turns Nico’s own bones to jelly, whether by osmosis or because Will is accidentally using some healing magic to make himself calmer. “Do you still prefer laying on your left side?”

How does Will know what side Nico prefers to la— oh. The infirmary. 

Back when Nico served his three days in the infirmary with Will, he could only lay on his left side, the right riddled with battlefield stitches and long gashes courtesy of Lycaon. Nico doesn't remember much of those three days, constantly in and out of consciousness, but he does remember the pain in Will’s eyes as he gently turned Nico onto his left side. He remembers Will quietly begging him to stop trying to roll over in his sleep lest he tear his stitches again . 

It took months for that particular wound to heal, once held together by thread and a poor but life-saving stitch job from Reyna. The original stitches had caused some weird issues with how Will wanted to do the new ones. They ended up reopening more than a few times on accident (read: Nico thinking it was okay to overexert himself). Will kept telling him he had to sleep on his left side, the wound on his right shoulder far worse for wear than the others, and Nico kept listening. And listening.

He only sleeps on his back or his left side now.

“Yeah, I do. I can’t believe you remember that.” 

“Of course I do. Turn over.” Will pushes on Nico’s side, prompting him to roll over onto his left. Nico curls up on instinct, preferring to sleep in the fetal position wrapped around his sun plushie when he’s alone. 

Will rolls over with him, front curling around Nico’s back, and adjusts the covers over them both. He keeps his lower half firmly away from Nico’s, only connecting again in a tangle at their feet. 

“Better?” Nico feels the big breath Will lets out as he asks, air tickling the back of his neck.

“Much.” 

They’re still a little stiff, a little awkward, so Nico tries to think of something, anything, to talk about until they can both relax. The same way Will used to chat with him until he could fall asleep at the infirmary. The same way that Will distracts Nico from his anxieties by bringing up something random until Nico’s either so confused or laughing so hard he can’t even remember what he was worried about. It’s nice to have the chance to do those things for Will in return. It doesn’t come up very often.

But what to say? Will is much better at this part than he is. And then Nico remembers the thought he had when Will gave him his sweatshirt on the highway—

“What do I smell like?” Nico asks the wall he’s facing. 

“Nico— What?!” Will’s body shakes with laughter and Nico decides in that moment there is no feeling in the world better than Will’s laughter against his back, vibrating through Nico’s body and into his skull. Like a shot of serotonin straight to his bloodstream. “Where is this coming from?” 

“You smell like cleaning supplies and hyacinths,” Nico pushes on, dodging giving a real answer. 

“That makes sense, I guess.” Will’s fading laugh is like a warm, well-loved bell. The kind that wakes happy people up every morning, or calls old folk in for church. 

Will shifts to throw an arm around Nico’s waist, pushing up to his chest and squeezing there, over Nico’s heart. He’s humming, a tuneless song sending wavelengths up Nico’s spine, holding Nico tight for a long, thoughtful moment before finally speaking up. 

“You smell like petrichor.” Will’s accent doesn’t come out often, but he can’t keep the Southern out of the word Nico doesn’t recognize, voice dipping into a stunted o at the end.  It must be something good, from the way Will says it, honey sweet with nostalgia. 

“I… don’t know what that is.”

“My mom used to say it all the time. It’s an earthy smell that comes after rain falls on dry soil. I know that’s, like, super specific, but there’s no better word for it. Wet, but comforting and homey. It was one of my favorite smells back when I lived in Texas. It doesn’t happen much in New York. Too humid all of the time for the ground to really dry out.” 

“That is really specific.” Nico takes a minute to think about it. He was joking when he guessed he smelled like dirt and sweat, but it makes sense that he smells like dirt at least a little bit. It is his father’s domain, after all. Well, sort of.

Nico spent so long in the Underworld growing up, monsters and gods alike love to remind him that he reeks of the place. Damp and putrid, the air in the afterlife seeps into Nico’s clothes and never leaves no matter how many times he washes them. As unforgivable as the smell of cigarettes, and somehow more eye watering, more acidic. The aura of death follows him like a black cloud. For Will to associate that with one of his favorite smells— 

Nico closes the gap and pushes their bodies flush, bringing his arms up to wrap around Will’s own. It feels the same as hugging his sun plushie, but better. Radiating heat. The real deal. 

For what feels like the millionth time that night, Nico’s emotions crash over him in waves. It scared him, at first, how much he loved Will. There’s fear in being so reliant, so dependent, on someone he loves after what happened to Bianca.

But here, in the dark, in the silence… Nico can’t find it in himself to be afraid. 

The gentle ba-bump, ba-bump of Will’s heartbeat plays against his ear. The sunny warmth inside Will’s body seeps into Nico’s own. Nico means to open his mouth, means to keep talking, but the heavy tide of sleep pulls him under. He can’t resist it. Not when he’s so secure in Will’s arms, and Nico sleeps better than he has in literal years.

Chapter Text

Will is gone when Nico wakes up. 

His side of the bed is still warm even in his absence. Nico can’t help but curl up in the spot where Will laid last night and bask in the smell and feel of knowing he was there. Will always wakes with the sunrise, like the rest of Apollo’s children. It’s clear Will decided he couldn’t just lay in bed because the blinds are flung open and Will’s suitcase looks recently rummaged through, his Sublime t-shirt sitting on top of the disaster pile. 

They haven’t even reached their destination and Will has managed to make a mess of his suitcase. 

It’s too bright in the room for Nico’s liking first thing in the morning, but he has no idea what time it is, so he opts to get up anyways. Quite literally flopping out of bed, squinting against the sun, he feels around for a fresh pair of pants. He pulls them on with his eyes closed, these somehow tighter than the last. Nico really needs to go shopping. He’s going to tear a hole in these pants somewhere a hole doesn’t belong and he’s never going to live it down. Maybe he should take Mitchell and Lacy up on letting the Aphrodite cabin buy him a whole new wardrobe. Then he wouldn’t have to do any of the shopping himself. Until he remembers who, exactly, he would be putting his trust in. Nico decides he’d be better off letting Percy loose in a mall with Hades’ emergency credit card than Lacy and Mitchell. 

Nothing against them, they’re just— well— insistent on Nico embracing his “goth side”. Whatever the Hades that means. Nico is not goth. And he does not need to be goth. His literal death aura already works as a human repellant. That Will is somehow immune to, because he thinks Nico smells like petrichor . 

Nico is still asleep enough that he swoons at the thought. 

Nico slept in the shirt he was planning to wear, so he simply runs a hand through his hair with his eyes closed, prays to no particular god or goddess that it looks okay (but makes a special note for the prayer not to go to Eros), and stumbles out of the room. He definitely does not hiss and cover his eyes when he opens the door to the hallway, skylights letting in searingly bright streaks of sunlight for the early morning.

Nico startles at the sound of a door closing to his right at the same time that he exits his own. Eyes barely open, he whips his head around to look at the noise, grimacing as he tries to decipher who it is.

“Jesus, man, go back to bed if you’re going to look at me like that!” Percy’s voice rings out, raucous laughter hiding just a hint of fear. Good. Nico takes comfort in knowing he’s still at least a little bit scary to some of the people in his life. He’s pretty sure trailing Will around like a newborn kitten lost him a lot of street-cred at Camp Half-Blood. It’s slowly coming back, though, with every fight his fellow campers watch him in. Emphasis on slowly. And only when they don’t end in Will fireman-carrying Nico to go get some Gatorade after blacking out, which happens more often than Nico is willing to admit. Enough that one might call it a habit . Oh well.

“Time?” Nico croaks out, blinking the blurriness out of his eyes and trying to open them wider.

Standing just outside his borrowed room three doors down, Percy has already gotten dressed for the day in baggy light jeans and a graphic crewneck sweater featuring a calico cat riding a surfboard. Which is ridiculous, because Percy can’t even surf. False advertisement.

“Just past eight, I think?” Percy says. “Annabeth went down at, like, seven muttering something about guest chores? I was not interested in that, so I went back to sleep. But it smells like they made breakfast!”

Percy’s right. The air smells like heavy spices and copious amounts of butter. No doubt the doing of Leo Valdez. 

“Breakfast,” Nico mumbles, in lieu of answering, and starts padding his way down the hall. He definitely doesn’t stick his hands out in front of him like the walking dead. Okay, he does, but only because his vision is still bleary with eye-ball crusties and he can’t see where he’s going. 

“You’re so weird, zombie man,” Percy laughs after him, following close behind. 

Thankfully, the walk back to the great hall is much shorter this morning than it felt coming in last night. Percy doesn’t even try to talk to him, which is a miracle in and of itself.

They find exactly what Nico wants to see when they reach the kitchen-living-dining-workshop-barn combination Pizza Hut-Taco Bell. (Gods, Nico misses Pizza Hut-Taco Bells. He should find out if they still exist and, if so, where. That will be the first place he shadow travels when Will lets him use his powers for fun again.) 

Will and Annabeth are setting plates out at a large dining table, fit for a small army, while Calypso and Leo cook side by side in the kitchen. 

It’s the first time Nico has gotten the chance to actually watch Leo and Calypso do something together . Nico’s brain is still a little behind, trying desperately to wake up, but he registers how comfortable they are floating around one another while cooking. Leo stirs something that smells spicy and hearty and delicious around in a pan while Calypso checks on the endless different stages of bread. The moment he turns off the stove, she’s at his side with some container or other and is gone again in the next instant. Leo’s flow is more subtle, outshined by how he’s constantly cracking jokes over his shoulder as he cooks or flicking water at Calypso every time he washes his hands. That doesn’t mean it’s invisible, though. Nico sees Leo cover things back up that Calypso accidentally leaves open, hand her things before she can even ask, dust a small puff of flour off of her shoulder when she’s not paying attention. 

It’s sweet. Nico hopes they work out. They seem happy here. 

He’s so caught up in watching and begging his brain to turn on that he doesn’t notice Will walking towards him until he’s swept up in a hug. 

“Mornin’, Star.” The words are muffled by the mop of Nico’s hair. 

“Mmmgf.” Nico tries to say good morning back, but his brain to mouth connection only produces basic sounds as he melts into Will’s warmth. Very slowly, careful not to alert Will to his intentions, Nico wraps his arms around Will’s midsection and basks in the hug, fingertips creeping towards the hem of Will’s shirt. The gig is up, though, as his freezing hands lift the back of Will’s shirt and come in contact with hot skin.

“Gods! Nico!” Will jumps back a full two feet, clutching his back the way one holds onto a stubbed toe. “You’re an ice pack!” It’s early enough that Nico can’t hold back his laughter, cracking himself up with the betrayed look on Will’s face. 

“Come back, I’m cold,” Nico whines, still laughing but trying his hardest to make puppy eyes and pout, wanting to warm his hands on Will’s sun skin. 

“Annabeth was right. You two are worse than her and Percy.” Calypso walks between them, steam billowing around her from the loaf of sourdough she carries. Only then does Nico realize what he’s done. 

Their friends are staring.

Nico decides very quickly that he does not like the attention at all . Something pulls at his gut and his whole stomach turns sour, the smell of breakfast curdling in his nostrils.

“Whatever.” Nico shrinks in on himself, tucking his hands into his armpits instead of reaching for Will again. He stares directly at the floor, wondering where this overwhelming sinking feeling is coming from. He hears Percy make a noise of alarm, the sound of footsteps, but it’s Will who moves to stand right in front of Nico first. Nico can barely see him through his hiding place behind his bangs. Warm hands land on Nico’s elbows and pull, coaxing his arms out of hiding. 

“Oh no you don’t. What use am I if not your personal heater?” His voice is so soft, warm like the spot he left in their shared bed last night. It’s obvious Will can tell what this is about, even as Nico isn’t so sure himself. Sometimes Nico resents that Will seems to know him better than he knows himself, but he’d rather be known than not have Will at all. 

Successfully releasing Nico’s hands from their underarm-chokehold, Will takes them in his own. They’re warm. Not the satisfying burn from the temperature difference between Nico’s fingers and Will’s core, but it feels good. Less hypothermic. 

“Still waking up?” Will asks, barely above a whisper, taking up Nico’s entire field of vision so he can’t go searching for his friends’ expressions like he wants to.

“Yeah,” Nico whispers in return, subconsciously trying to lean back and get more space. He doesn’t want more space, though. What he wants is for Will to hug him again, to pretend no one else is standing here in the grand hall and let his brain catch up to his good nights sleep and swirling emotions. 

Nico can already tell this next week is going to be a mess. The looming storm that is thinking about Jason swirls in the horizon of his mind. Nico can tell it’s making him erratic, pushing and pulling his emotions randomly left and right. Which is unfair, because Nico has enough mood swings from his PTSD. He doesn’t need another thing. 

Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, kids. We’re going on an emotional rollercoaster!

As always, Will reads Nico’s mind, and pulls him into another hug, tighter than before. Nico feels him slip something into Nico’s front pocket as they hug, and when they pull back Nico can see the tops of headphones peeking out from his jeans. Genius .

“Thanks,” Nico says, watery eyed and throat thick, before making his way to the dining table without looking up. 

Nico pulls the iPod Shuffle out, puts both headphones in, and hits play, knowing it’ll give him what he wants even though he doesn’t know what he wants. It starts up Will’s favorite playlist, the one he filled with songs that remind him of their relationship. They have a burned CD of it, because Kayla wanted to show Nico how to burn CDs “like it’s 2008”, with The Sun and The Star Sharpied in Kayla’s flourishing cursive on the front. 

It’s as likely to make the tears start again as it is to stave them off, but it feels right.

His friends sit down around him. Percy’s concerned gaze stays trained on Nico even as they all load their plates. Nico can only blink at his empty one. 

It disappears from his vision and Nico sluggishly moves to follow its trajectory when he realizes Will is putting food on it for him. A little bit of fruit, some bread, a decent helping of cheese. He stays away from the meat, knowing it makes Nico nauseous in the morning if he’s not feeling well. Which is a shame. Whatever skillet of sausage and cheese Leo made looks delicious, but Nico knows it’ll ruin his appetite if he tries. 

Music blasts in his ears, drowning out whatever conversation is going on, but Will is smiling wide, and that’s enough to make Nico feel better. He manages to put a few pieces of fruit in his mouth as he watches Annabeth and Percy tell the story of the Cerastes to Leo and Calypso, Percy gesturing wildly to imitate stabbing the strange near-harmless snakes. 

Nico likes watching Will talk the most. The view of his mouth moving with the sappy songs in the background makes Nico kind of feel like he’s in a Hallmark movie. Also, there is no pastime more enjoyable than watching the freckles on Will’s face crinkle and scrunch and disappear and reappear when he talks. 

When the conversation shifts, Nico turns his music down to catch the topic. Annabeth is complaining about her class schedule, Percy is whining that he still hasn’t picked a major. It makes something weird twist in Nico’s stomach, how different everything is. Jason was so excited to see Percy and Annabeth off to college. He couldn't wait to move to New Rome himself and join them.

Nico turns his music back up and goes back to watching his friends. Easier to pretend Jason isn’t missing out, that way. 

When he finally gets around to the bread and cheese on his plate, it is divine . Nico cannot remember the last time he had bread and cheese so fresh and flavorful. The excited noise he makes is so loud he hears it through his headphones.

He’s not sure how he knows, but Nico knows it reminds him of Italy. There aren’t many memories there to recall, but he’s always finding new little triggers that show him flashes of his old life.

And at this moment, he’s sitting at the table with his mamma and Bianca. The two of them have their heads bowed in prayer, eyes closed. Which is a big mistake, because they’ve left a loaf of bread and the pre-cut cheese within reach of Niccolò’s tiny fingers. 

“Padre nostro, che sei nei cieli,

sia santificato il tuo nome,

venga il tuo regno,

sia fatta la tua volontà,”

Niccolò recites the prayer even as his mouth waters. No one’s looking… who would know if he took just a little piece? Bianca cracks an eye open, like she can sense Niccolò’s mischief. He squeezes his eyes tight to convince her he was praying the whole time. 

come in cielo così in terra.

Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano,

e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti

come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori,

Niccolò risks peeking at Bianca. Her eyes are closed again. His hands, pressed together in prayer, twitch with anticipation. 

e non ci indurre in tentazione,

ma liberaci dal male. 

Tuo è il regno, tua la potenza et la gloria nei secoli.

Amen.”

And when he picks a slice of cheese from just the right spot, they’re none-the-wiser when prayer concludes and they lift their heads the moment after Niccolò swallows. 

Nico remembers feeling guilty. The stress of missing prayer almost outweighs the deliciousness of those forbidden bites. Now, knowing his mamma knew the prayers were for naught… he doesn’t feel so bad anymore. 

Nico wonders if, in those moments, his mamma was praying to Hades instead. 

When he’s done with his plate in real life, Will serves him more. And when he finishes that plate, too, Will raises an eyebrow and points at the still-steaming skillet Leo slaved over, the perfect amount left for a Nico-sized serving, and Nico nods his head. 

Nico takes a headphone out for the first time in a good half-an-hour so he can ask, “What is it?” He’s looking at Leo, who does a terrible job concealing his shock at Nico’s sudden participation. 

“Chorizo! A specific kind of spicy sausage. And cheese sauce. I like mine with lots and lots of cheese sauce.” And that is exactly what it looks like, thick orange bubbling cheese sauce that Nico can’t resist picking up a piece of bread for, sopping it up instead of eating with a fork. “It’s my abuelita’s recipe. She always cracked an egg right on top, but Calypso isn’t a fan of eggs, so I made those separate.” 

Nico’s barely listening, because chorizo might be one of the best things he’s ever eaten. Nico is going to make sure Leo’s abuelita found a pleasant afterlife. He makes a mental note to get her full name, and to ask if Leo would like an audience with her ghost. 

“Is that a recipe you’re willing to share?” Will asks, not taking his eyes off of Nico shoveling chorizo in his mouth like his life depends on it.

“Abuelita would say if I told you I’d have to kill you. But she’s dead, so I’ll write it down for you, amigo. Only because I just received my very first compliment from the Ghost King.” Leo looks positively smug, watching Nico scarf down his cooking. 

“But I haven’t said anything,” Nico says, not bothering to chew or swallow before speaking. 

“You don’t need to,” Leo laughs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you enjoy eating.”

“He likes blue cake, and my mom’s cookies,” Percy supplies, absolutely unhelpfully. 

“That’s because Sally Jackson is a gift upon this Earth greater than any god could conjure,” Nico says, bread still in his mouth and trying to tear a piece with his teeth.

Annabeth nods along because of course Nico is right. Nico would very gladly sacrifice a portion of his dinner every night into the flames in Sally Jackson’s name. In fact, they should build a shrine to her at Camp Half-Blood.

The conversation turns to Calypso asking about how Mrs. Jackson is doing, and Will has to lean over and ask Nico in a hushed whisper how Calypso knows about Percy’s mom, which reminds Nico that Calypso is another person Percy Jackson had to let down in the wake of being entrusted with the fate of the world before his sixteenth birthday. 

They should start a club. Nico, Calypso, Rachel, and maybe Reyna if she’s feeling it. Will would probably want in, too, just for fun. They could make some banger merch. I fell in love with Percy Jackson and all I got was this stupid T-shirt. Nico makes a mental note to propose membership to Calypso later when they have a private moment. Their history drives a hard bargain for her to earn the spot of Vice President. A promise broken much like Percy’s promise to Nico.

I’ll come back for you, after the war.

I’ll keep your sister safe.

But no one is prying the President spot out of Nico’s cold, dead hands. He earned that crown to be King of Percy Jackson’s Biggest Regrets. And he wears it with pride, thank you very much. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“Ready for another eleven hours of minivan time?” Will is straining to push all of his clothing down into his suitcase, forcing it to fit. Nico is worried he’s going to pull a muscle. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” 

They pack the rest of their stuff in silence, but when they go to walk through the door, Nico stops just short of opening it. 

Something holds him there. A thought, a wayward feeling. 

“Everything okay?” Will asks, sensing Nico’s hesitation to move forward.

It takes Nico a second to parse the emotion, to catch the fleeting thought that planted his feet to the ground.

“What if I can’t do it? What if talking about it is too much, and I need to leave? Do you think— Do you think they’ll be upset with me?” Nico speaks his fears to the door, not wanting to look behind himself at Will. 

A warm hand connects with his shoulder, weighted and grounding. 

“Then we’ll leave together. Remember, I’m here to support you . This is about you and your friends getting closure with each other and reminiscing. If you decide it’s too much, I’ll stop with you. We won’t know what that looks like until we get there. And if your friends are upset with you for needing space to process the death of your best friend, then I’ll have some very choice words to say.” 

Will says the last part as if he’s joking, but Nico knows that if it came to it Will would readily stand there and scold the entire crew of the Argo II like a rowdy group of misbehaving toddlers. It’s almost too easy to picture. 

“Alright.” Nico takes a deep breath. “Onwards, then. To Oklahoma.” 

“To Oklahoma,” Will repeats. His patience is unending as Nico psyches himself up to open the bedroom door and cross the threshold. It feels more significant than leaving Camp Half-Blood. It feels final. Where they’re going, they’ll be so far away that not even an emergency shadow travel to the Hades cabin will be viable in Nico’s current state of health. Not having that escape option, that immediate relief or guaranteed safety, makes him nervous.

And yet, with Will’s hand still on his shoulder, he exits the bedroom. Nerves and all.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Piling into the minivan proves to be an… interesting ordeal. 

Leo’s suitcase is much larger than everyone else’s, and Annabeth has to unload the entire trunk and load it back up with Leo’s at the bottom to avoid crushing anyone’s luggage. She makes everyone leave her alone while she plays her game of Tetris, so Percy and Will make their way back inside with Calypso to do a final sweep and make sure none of them left anything behind in their rooms. Leo and Nico, knowing they’d be more harmful than helpful in that regard, stand to the side of the minivan and wait. 

“Did you need to bring the whole house with you?” Nico doesn’t mean to sound so accusatory, he’s just a little miffed how Leo could need to bring so much stuff with him to spend a few days in Oklahoma. 

Leo, thankfully, doesn’t call Nico out on his bad attitude and laughs it off. “I’m staying with Piper for two extra weeks. Lied to my school about having some family thing. The usual.” 

That explains the larger bag, but Nico noticed that Calypso did not have an equally large bag. Which means… “Calypso isn’t staying with you two?”

“Nah, she didn’t— she wasn’t—” Leo’s smile twitches and falters, his face experiencing a glitch in his programming. Suddenly, the whole thing fails, and Leo is left looking more serious than Nico has ever seen him. It's terrifying to witness. Even in his worst moments, Nico has always seen Leo cover his hurt with some snide smile or watery joke. Not this time, apparently. 

“I asked her not to.” 

Makes sense, that Leo and Piper would want some extra time together to process Jason’s death. If Nico is remembering correctly, the two were friends before they even met Jason. Or, rather, before Hera (Juno?) gave them false memories of meeting Jason. What was the school they all went to? A wilderness school for… troubled teens? Nico hopes he’s misremembering the word choice, but he can’t help but feel like that’s par for the course for demigods. 

Summing up both Piper (a kleptomaniac vying for her famous father’s attention) and Leo (an orphan who struggled in the foster-care system because of monster attacks ) as falling under the same category of troubled seems… reductive. 

Nico has never had a meaningful conversation with Leo, but he figures he at least owes it to Jason to hear the guy out. The only problem is trying to respond appropriately. 

What Would Jason Do? 

“Was she not okay with that?” Nico leans against the minivan, hoping his leading question is natural. Gods, Nico is not great at this making-friends thing. His hands shake in his pockets. He thumbs at his coin. 

“Mamacita did not like the suggestion,” Leo is back to covering his frown with a laugh, but it comes out broken and strange. Leo pushes a tan, anxious hand into his thick curls, unable to run his fingers all the way through it without catching. “But it wasn’t really a suggestion, ya know? We were a trio. Me, Jason, and Piper. Piper and I need time, alone , to talk. Without Calypso. She’s just… she’s the anxious type. Or the jealous type. Whatever you want to call it. But I have a feeling she’ll get over that when she gets the chance to actually meet Piper. Girl is a charmer, pun intended.”

Nico’s not entirely following, but he nods along sympathetically anyways. It doesn’t strike him as odd that Calypso would be anxious to be separated from Leo, used to being left and forgotten on her tiny island. But didn’t she leave Leo to do some sort of camp or school thing? It has to be jealousy then… doesn’t it? It takes Nico a minute to realize what she could possibly be jealous of , until he remembers that Piper is a girl and Leo is a boy and straight people think in one-to-one math. 

And Nico is the only one who knows Piper is a lesbian. Right.

“Seems… complicated,” is all Nico manages to offer. His half-sentiment doesn’t phase Leo, who smiles like Nico has just given him the best advice.

“Yeah. Complicated. That’s a good word.” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Will and Nico climb into the minivan first, taking the very back, sealed in by the second row where Leo and Calypso pile in. Percy insists on driving still, of course, despite Leo protesting that they could take shifts. Something about insurance and liability? Nico doesn’t know what either of those words mean, and he’ll never have to. Hooray for not existing to the government because he technically died over eighty years ago! Tax evasion is a life-style, not a hobby.

Sitting in the third row is perfect. It’s darker back here, windows smaller, and Nico doesn’t feel like he has to interact with the other present couples as a social courtesy. Most importantly, it is now Leo and Calypso’s job to entertain Percy while he drives. 

And Leo Valdez is the perfect man for the job. Class clown extraordinaire. 

Leo and Percy talk for the entire drive, Leo’s only other activity fiddling with random bits from his tool belt, building and deconstructing what Nico thinks is a small race car toy. 

They talk until their stop for lunch, they talk in the run-down drive thru, they talk until the next stop for sketchy local dinner, and talk with their mouths full the whole rest of the way to Oklahoma. The Midwest scenery outside never changes from low grass plains and rolling hills and one lane roads, making time seem as though it’s on an endless loop. Every time Nico and Will switch activities, whether it be listening to music or playing little games or even napping out of boredom, the animated voices of Percy and Leo never stop.

It’s… kind of nice. A constant reminder that Nico is not alone. Nico gets the strange feeling that this is something he could get used to. 

And then he realizes he might already be used to it. 

It’s the same reason he likes being in Will’s arms or hooking ankles under the table or hearing Will hum out in the main section of his cabin while Nico showers. Likes listening to Austin and Kayla ramble while he naps at the Apollo table at breakfast, or the way Jason used to let Nico put his feet in his lap when they sat out by the docks together in silence. The reason he sat in the public areas of the Argo II, lurking in the corner but always listening. How Bianca used to read her homework out loud while Nico drifted to sleep.

Contact, little reminders. Ways that Nico can be present without having to take part. 

Percy announces when they cross the border into the Cherokee Nation, voice hoarse, officially less than a half hour away from Piper’s house. They haven’t seen another car in the last two hours.

“So, correct me if I’m wrong,” Will speaks up from their spot all the way in the back of the minivan, almost having to yell over the sound of the AC. “But Piper’s dad is the Tristan McLean, right? Like, famous movie star Tristan McLean who went bankrupt because of Triumvirate Holdings, Tristan McLean?” 

From the profile view they have of Leo’s face, his expression twists uncomfortably. It’s Annabeth who answers, turning in her seat to talk, absentmindedly pulling her errant braids back into a ponytail as she speaks.“Yeah. After the emperors were defeated he got some of his stuff back, but they had already made the choice to move back to Piper’s childhood home and signed her up for school there. They thought being close to family again would be good for everyone. Especially after… well.” Annabeth can’t bring herself to say it. The fill in the blank is Jason’s death. 

Nico couldn’t imagine surviving feeling Jason’s life force snap if he wasn’t at camp with Will. Plus, he had the added bonus of being distracted by his and Will’s quest to Tartarus. Piper watched Jason die. And she’s been sitting with it for months, waiting to be emotionally ready for her friends to come around. 

“My homegirl is strong as fuck. She’s doing alright.” Leo ends his statement with an unconvincing, watery sniffle. Calypso places a feather-light hand on his arm. 

They drive in silence for the last twenty minutes. The lack of streetlamps and the narrow roads with no lanes set Nico on edge.

The houses they pass are hard to make out in the dark and he can’t tell if they’re really small or the detached carports are overly large. Some look abandoned, others pristine. There are houses with faded paint, houses half torn down, houses so small they sit somewhere between mobile homes and vanlife, houses four times the size of the others around it that look brand new. It’s like someone has been dragging random houses from other places and plopping them here, in the middle of Oklahoma.

They pull into the driveway of a modest red brick house with encroaching white grout on the bottom half and tan wood panels on the top half. There’s a random crumbling gray stone pillar off to the side, likely for a once-functional fireplace. The grass is short and dying, yellow-green in the early stages of Fall, and the driveway is full of cracks. And yet, the car they park next to is a brand-new shiny black Escalade, much nicer than any other car they’ve seen in the neighborhood. The license plate reads CLEAN. 

It’s so… normal. Not what Nico pictured for Piper McLean at all, who always seemed larger than life. He can’t picture her, here, standing in the yard or hovering at the doorway. Not in the way that he can picture Percy on his mom’s worn out sofa in their cramped Manhattan apartment, or the way he can picture Will in cowboy boots hanging off the edge of a sturdy fence in Texas. Maybe Nico is being unreasonable, or maybe he doesn’t know Piper well enough. He’d like to know Piper well enough. He thinks they both deserve that, in the wake of Jason’s death.

The front porch lights flick on, and there she is. Piper McLean. 

Unlike Leo, who caved under the weight of Jason’s death and looked half-alive standing there on the sidewalk when Nico first saw him, Piper looks… the same. Baggy army-green t-shirt, black jean shorts, fuzzy socks, silk dark hair split into two braids instead of her classic one. Her shoulders remain straight, her posture confident and undeterred, and the set of her full mouth holds the same look of grim determination that has always been there. The only difference is there’s no life in her eyes. They shift colors with no direction, no joy. A muted color wheel of necessary change rather than a sparkling kaleidoscope. Reflectionless, in the desaturating white light of her front porch.

It’s Annabeth who leaps out of the car this time, not even waiting for Percy to put it in park. She throws the lock open herself, shouldering the door open the second it clicks. 

Neither of them say a word. Annabeth runs full speed, only to come to a complete halt at the last second and grab Piper by the back of the head, smashing them together into the world’s most aggressive hug. Leo is quick to follow, throwing his door open and getting tangled in his seatbelt for a minute before escaping and doing his own leap into Piper’s arms. From the way Leo’s shoulders are shaking and Annabeth’s chest is heaving, it’s clear they’re all crying.

Piper’s cries are loud, hiccupping sobs that flow like the saddest music Nico’s ever heard. Eyes open, arms wrapped around her two friends, Piper stares at the sky. Even sobbing openly into the night, she’s beautiful. Nico couldn’t imagine living a life without the ability to ugly cry. Where he couldn’t look as visceral as he felt, pour his emotions out onto his face in a way that made the people around him shrink back. 

“We should give them a second.” Percy says, voice cracking. His hands are still on the wheel, stuck, knuckles turning white from how hard he’s holding on. Without a word, Calypso gets out of the minivan, walks back to the trunk, and begins the long process of unloading their luggage. 

Nico can feel it, how close they all are to falling apart. How close he is to falling apart. 

“We should go help Calypso,” Nico whispers to Will, knowing that if he speaks any louder he’ll cry.

“We should,” Will agrees, but he pulls Nico against his chest instead. And Nico ends up crying anyway. Quiet, staining Will’s t-shirt with tears. 

“This sucks.” Percy chokes the words out, all the way at the front of the car, and rests his forehead on the steering wheel instead of watching his best friends cry. Nico’s not sure he and Will were meant to hear the words.

Eventually, the three of them gather the courage to exit the minivan, all teary and red-eyed, and help Calypso with the remaining bags. By the time the suitcases are rolled up to the front steps, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth are drying their tears. 

When Piper catches sight of them, her face splits into a toothy, watery smile, some of the sparkle returning to her eyes. Piper and Percy don’t exchange any words, only one very tight hug that Piper seems to melt into. (Nico gets it. Percy hugs in the way Nico imagines a good dad hugs. It’s soul crushing.) 

“Will! Nico!” She grants them a verbal greeting, voice loud and musical like Nico remembers. There’s no hesitation in how she hugs Will, or how she reaches for Nico next, but she does pause to make sure. “Is a hug okay?” 

She always treated Nico with such dignity and respect. Always shared Jason’s time with him, even when Nico felt he took too much. Nico hopes his smile isn’t too miserable, but seeing her is really reminding him of who is missing, the tall blonde figure that would usually be hovering awkwardly over her shoulder. Nico’s heart is cold with the loss, but he’s defrosting under the fierce hold of Piper’s hand against his bicep. 

“Of course.” The furrow in his brow doesn’t un-crease as they hug, but it feels nice to finally have physical contact like this. Talking over Iris Message was nice, but it wasn’t the same. 

Time stands still for a moment, their friends watching. It dawns on Nico that none of them know he and Piper talked. Other than Will, of course. Watching Piper and Nico have such a tender moment is probably strange. 

“It’s good to see you in person. It’s been, what, a year? More?” Piper squeezes him tight, whispering against the side of Nico’s face. She has to lean down slightly for their hug. 

“Too long.” 

“You look healthier.”

“I’ve been trying. Are you doing okay?”

“As okay as I can be.”

They separate, slowly, and Nico wonders how many older sisters he can collect before the void that was Bianca is filled. Hazel, Reyna, Annabeth, Piper. And yet, funnily enough, it was Jason that did the trick. And look where that got him. 

“And Calypso! I’ve heard so much about you!” Piper pulls in the new addition to their friend group for a hug, throwing her arms around Calypso’s shoulders. Ironic, that Calypso is worried about Piper stealing Leo when Leo should be worried about Piper stealing Calypso. The daughter of Aphrodite gives Calypso an appreciative once-over, exaggerated and ridiculous with her tear-stained cheeks, and nods very seriously. “I knew it. Too pretty for Leo.” 

She must be using her powers, because even Nico shudders with the force of her raised eyebrow. 

“Stuff it with the magical rizz, McLean!” Leo shoves her a good few feet, pouting as Piper howls with laughter. Calypso flushes a nice shade of strawberry red from her hairline to collarbone.

“It’s nice to officially meet you,” Piper manages between giggles, holding Leo at an arm’s length while he tries to swing false-punches in her direction. Even if his arms were longer, Nico doubts he’d do much damage. Piper would have an easier time snapping Leo’s wrists than she would a dry twig.

Calypso has to actively pick her jaw up off of the floor. Nico hopes she’s comforted by the sight of Leo and Piper play-fighting like bratty siblings. Emphasis on bratty. 

“It’s nice to officially meet you, too.” 

When they finally crowd inside, the living room is cozy and colorful. The leather couch is stacked high with warm-toned hand-woven throw blankets and bright decorative pillows. Each piece of furniture is a different style, all second hand. The kitchen is small and modest, closed off and barely visible from where they’re standing. There’s no dining table in sight, but a small yellow-lit hallway leads to what Nico assumes are bedrooms.

“My dad agreed to stay with my Grandpa Tom for the week.” Which absolutely means Piper used charmspeak on him to make him leave. “So we have the house to ourselves! I’ll sleep in my dad’s room. I figured Percy and Annabeth could have my room, and Leo and Calypso could have the guest room because that’s where Leo will be staying later, anyways. But… that leaves you two on the couch.” Piper turns to Will and Nico, concern in her gaze. “I’m happy to switch with you, if that’s uncomfortable or if you don’t want to sleep in a communal space. But I know sleeping in my dad’s bed is also super weird.” 

“What I’d give to sleep in Mr. McLean’s bed,” Percy sighs dreamily. Here he goes again with the DILF jokes. Percy and Jason were insufferable with them at camp. Percy even managed to get a sexy magazine cover of Tristan McLean from Piper’s obsessed sister, Lacy, and hung it above his bed in the Poseidon cabin as a joke.

“I’d pay money just to smell his pillows,” Leo leers right back, the both of them side eyeing Piper with twin shit-eating grins. 

“Can we please not sexualize my dad for, like, five minutes? You two don’t even like boys! If anything, Nico and Will should be the ones drooling over my dad.” Piper crosses her arms over her chest, expression flat and exasperated. 

“No thanks, not my type,” Nico shakes his head with a thumbs down. And then immediately motions zipping it to Percy when he opens his mouth to make some sort of not my type joke. Percy concedes. Too easily. Nico can see the thoughts rolling around in Percy’s brain trying to form a Plan B. And Percy having thoughts is always dangerous.

“Definitely my type, but we don’t know each other well enough for me to make jokes about sniffing your dad’s pillows,” Will laughs. 

“Who said I don’t like boys? I’ll sexualize your dad all I want!” Percy interrupts before Piper can respond, offended. 

Which… wait. What? 

“I’m sorry, what, ” Nico rounds on Percy, black eyes wide in shock. Horror. Disdain. If this is how Nico finds out Percy is bisexual he is going to find the nearest cliff in the state of Oklahoma and throw himself off of it. Which might take some searching, but he’ll do it. Mark his words.

“Yeah, wait, what?” Piper says, because queer solidarity. 

Percy, equally flabbergasted by his friends’ reactions, holds his own hands out in front of him in defense. “I have never said I was straight! I don’t know why you’re all shocked. I can’t vouch for Leo, but I am totally not joking when I say your dad is hot.” 

Slack-jawed, Leo mumbles, “I am joking.” 

Holding back several hundred metric tons of laughter back behind clenched teeth, Annabeth places a gentle hand on Percy’s arm. “Hey, Seaweed Brain? Maybe another time? I think you’re going to make poor Nico short-circuit. It’s late, we’re all very tired from driving. We can talk about this tomorrow morning.” 

“I’m confused. What is there to talk about? Was that… Did nobody know?” 

“This is the worst day of my life,” Nico announces. 

You know, if Nico had a nickel for every worst-day-of-his-life that was a direct result of something Percy Jackson said or did, he’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

“Oh, please!” Percy snaps. “You’re so dramatic. We’re literally descendants of Greek gods. I thought every demigod was bisexual until I was, like, sixteen.” Which must be a sore-spot, because Percy crosses his arms and looks away from his crowd of friends, red-faced. 

Gods, to think he had a chance and he was just two years too young and not blonde and super not Percy’s type and also Percy isn’t his type… okay so maybe he didn’t have a chance. But still!

They’re all still gawking at Percy in stunned silence when Piper speaks up. 

“Okay, so, is now a good time to announce that I’m a lesbian? I was going to wait for a dramatic reveal, but—” Piper fully steals Percy’s moment. And thank the gods, really, because Nico needs a whole other week-long trip to process Percy being bisexual.

“What?!” Leo’s shocked expression whips from Percy to Piper. Everyone stares at her, wide-eyed. Even Calypso looks concerned. “But… But you and Jason…?” Leo’s face flips through exactly 14 different emotions, each trying to conceal the last. 

Percy’s face does the same thing but in reverse. “Did… Jason know?” He eventually asks, careful to regulate his tone into something light and non-accusatory. This, Nico knows the answer to. Intimately, in fact. 

The silly smile on Piper’s face tightens into a grimace. And then it falls, until all that’s left on her face is terror.

“Yeah. He did. We uh— we weren’t together anymore. But…” Tugging anxiously at one of her braids, Piper’s eyes dart around the room. To say their friends look horrified is putting it lightly. Leo, most of all, who looks halfway between crying again and hysterically laughing. 

This is clearly not the reaction she wanted. 

The color drains from Piper’s face. Nico can see she wasn’t ready for this. Not the interrogation part. Not the bringing up Jason part. They just got here. 

Nico shoots a panicked look at Annabeth, hoping she’ll know what to do and hop in. But Annabeth looks with worry right back at him, and neither of them speak. Dread settles in Nico’s stomach, as Piper pulls the fake smile back onto her face. Her eyes fill with all the color that’s missing from her face. 

“Can we forget I said that, for now? I’m not ready to talk about it.” Piper’s words wash over them like a firm blanket, charmspeak dripping like thick nectar from her voice. Percy, Leo, Calypso’s faces reset, falling slack and then snapping right back to a pleasant expression. 

He, Will, and Annabeth stand unaffected, blinking owlishly at one another. …So Annabeth must have already known, then. 

Nico doesn’t know much about the nature of Piper’s charmspeak, but he assumes those out of the loop won’t be remembering this part of their little conversation until Piper brings it back up, so he makes a mental note not to talk about it. He can’t decide if he’s upset with her for using her powers on their friends, or impressed by her quick thinking. 

“Well, it’s been a long day of driving and I can feel the backs of my eyeballs.” Annabeth Chase deserves an Olympic medal for all the hoops she jumps through to get her friend out of deep, deep shit. It easily distracts Leo and Percy from noticing they were charmed, and they nod with enthusiasm. Calypso doesn’t look quite so fooled. She eyes Piper with quiet intrigue. 

“Of course! In fact, I think we should all go to bed. It’s getting very late!” Piper agrees, relief written across her face. The leftover charmspeak causes Nico’s shoulders to drop and his eyes to fall half-closed without his permission. 

After all that fuss, Nico and Will gladly take the pull-out couch, on the condition that no one attempts to unceremoniously wake them up in the middle of the night. 

There’s a brief moment as they’re all trading turns in the house’s one bathroom where someone brings up worry about a monster attack. After all, they’re here with two sons of the Big Three, Apollo’s best healer, Aphrodite’s current most powerful child, Athena’s favorite daughter, Hephaestus’ only living offspring who can fire-bend, and a literal Titan. 

And then they remembered that if they have to fight anything, they have two sons of the Big Three, Apollo’s best healer, Aphrodite’s current most powerful child, Athena’s favorite daughter, Hephaestus’ only living offspring who can fire-bend, and a literal Titan… So they’ll be fine.

Piper does request, however, that they avoid ruining her and her father’s only remaining possessions if a fight does break out. Fair enough.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Nico is showering as quickly as he can, last to use the bathroom, scrubbing grime away under boiling hot water, when there’s a knock on the bathroom door. 

“I left my bag in there! Is it cool if I come in?” 

It’s Percy. 

“Yeah.” Nico hollers back over the sound of the spray. 

The door cracks, letting in a rush of cold air, and immediately shuts again. “Thanks, sorry! Forgot I put my meds in this bag.” Nico is desperate to pry, but decides not to because that probably breaches some sort of social code, focusing instead on scrubbing his scalp with Piper’s shampoo extra hard to distract himself. 

Percy’s rummaging comes to an abrupt stop. 

“Hey, uh, I wanted to apologize for earlier.” Percy keeps his voice low, barely audible over Nico’s shower. Nico hates when Percy uses his serious voice. It reminds him of worse times. Of the Battle of Manhattan, of the River Styx, of being commanded to lead their friends on the Argo II and watching Percy fall into Tartarus. 

“What for?” Nico moves on to rinsing the suds from his hair, trying to hold onto the warm happy feeling his shower was giving him. 

“Annabeth thinks I should have been a little more… tactful, with coming out. But I didn’t even realize I needed to.” Nico can hear the conflict in Percy’s voice, tone tight with worry. “I’ve always been bi, even my mom knew when I was little. I never even considered that part of what bothered you about having to come out was the actual being gay part. I thought it was just about… liking me. Because of, well— I’m sorry.” 

Nico is so glad they’re having this conversation through the shower curtain. If he had to look Percy in the eyes while listening to him say all that he might have passed out. He’s not so glad they’re having this conversation while he’s naked , showering three feet away from his childhood crush, but you can’t win them all. Nico is trying to look on the positive side here. 

“It was mostly about liking you.” Nico admits, bright red from head to toe. Nico looks down at his knees through the steam as he talks, arms limp at his side. It’s easier to say more than a few sentences at a time when he can pretend Percy isn’t actually on the other side of the curtain. “I didn’t— I know I joke a lot about growing up in the thirties but I don’t actually remember most of it. My only memories are fleeting ones of Bianca and my mother. And Camp Half-Blood isn’t exactly a judgemental place, and there was no one talking to me about relationships when I was a homeless pre-teen. Except for Eros, who definitely wasn’t focused on the being gay part. Being a Greek god and all. So… you’re right. I was definitely worried about being gay, don’t get me wrong, but I was a lot more worried about being in love with the guy who I hated more than anyone else in the world. Hero of the universe and whatever.” 

“Oh.” Is all Percy says back. Totally understandable. Nico isn’t sure what he’d say back to that, either. The outline of Percy hovers awkwardly, rimmed by the yellow bathroom lighting. 

Nico stands there, in the heat, head hung low face first into the stream. He’s surprised by the lack of emotion swelling in his chest. There’s no outburst, no raised voice. His tone stays steady, hollow. No tears threaten to fall. All the breath is gone from his lungs, a void in his chest. 

Now that he’s started, it’s hard to stop.

“And you don’t owe it to anyone to come out how they want you to. I had to do that, and it sucked.” Nico takes a deep breath, reminding himself of every conversation he’s had with Will about what bothers him when he hangs out with the Argo II crew. Every tear filled night where Will encouraged him to speak his mind. He’d never get to see change if he didn’t say anything, and it’s not fair of him to hold a grudge when he never gives them a chance to fix it in the first place. 

So, he says something. Because healing, or whatever. The cocoa-puffs would be so proud.

“I’m getting a little tired of everyone walking on eggshells around me all the time. At camp, everyone treats me exactly the same as everyone else. Is that too much to ask? We’ve all been through really shitty things, why am I the exception? Why do you and Annabeth look at me like my life already ended tragically when I’m still here? ”

Silence. The gentle tap tap tap of Percy’s fingers echo on the countertop.

Did Nico say something wrong? Oh gods, what if—

“I’m not walking on eggshells, I’m… I’m trying to be careful . I’ve already fucked up so much. Everything that’s gone wrong between us was because of me. I can’t keep doing that to you, Nico,” Percy’s voice wobbles, falling heavy on the floor with the shower spray. 

Ah, self-loathing. Two can play at that game. 

Nico dredges up every emotion, every moment he and Percy have tried and failed. Tartarus sure didn’t let him forget them. He fishes the key out of the depths of his soul and unlocks that section of his heart. Lets it all come pouring out. Ironic, that it would feel like a waterfall. 

“What happened to Bianca wasn’t your fault, no matter how much I tried to convince myself it was. I didn’t exactly give you a good reason to trust me, when I randomly showed up at your doorstep. And me being in love with you definitely wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know I went to Tartarus because I didn’t tell you and you were actively wandering around California with memory loss. In fact, I remember very blatantly lying to your face that I did not know you when we saw each other at Camp Jupiter. So, I’d like to know where you get off on thinking that everything bad between us was all on you?” With each sentence, some of the oxygen returns to Nico’s lungs. His words grow louder, but he never takes his eyes off of his trembling fingers. Nico even lets himself laugh at the end. It’s a sharp, exhausted little thing.

“I— When did you get so mature?” Percy laughs, a sad little thing. Nico’s never heard him quite so exhausted. Not after the first war, not after Tartarus— maybe talking with the shower curtain between them is helping Percy, too. 

Percy sighs heavily. “Alright, so maybe we’ve both fucked up. A lot.” There’s a thunk, as Percy’s back presumably hits the door and he slumps there, quiet. 

Nico wonders how long it’ll be until someone realizes they’ve both been in here together for a long while and comes looking. Maybe they already have, and heard what they were saying and promptly marched back where they came from. Maybe they’re leaning against the door listening right now. Nico hopes not.

“You know, I didn’t see it for what it was at the time, but I definitely had a giant crush on Luke when I first got to camp,” Percy says out of the blue. Nico recognizes it for what it is: Percy’s version of an olive branch. His own story, his own fuck up. Nico’s pain and vulnerability for his. A fair trade. 

“Wha— Luke Castellan?!” No way. That has to be worse than Nico having a crush on Percy. Wasn’t Luke, like, seven years older than Percy? And at least Percy is a very charming, very nice guy. Good head on his shoulders, a lovely family. Can’t go wrong with a mama’s boy. 

Luke actively tried to kill Percy, multiple times, when Percy was literally only twelve years old, and Luke was an adult . And then again at thirteen. And fourteen. And— you get the picture.

Until he and Annabeth convinced Luke to kill himself in front of them. No biggie. 

“The one and only.” Percy laughs. “He was blonde! I stood no chance.” 

“That’s… terrible. Percy, seriously—” Nico laughs again, much less bitter this time and much more— something. Horrified, maybe? Aghast? Wondering if he can travel back in time and give twelve year old Percy a fucking hug? And maybe rescue himself from that military school while he’s at it so Percy doesn’t have to. Then neither of them would be in this bathroom having a one-naked-person heart to heart. 

“I know, I know…” Percy’s laughter pitters out. There’s a deep sigh, and Nico watches Percy’s outline stand up and move closer to the shower curtain as Nico rinses the conditioner out of his hair that he doesn’t even remember putting there. “I’ll be better about not treating you differently. And I’ll tell Annabeth, too, if you’re cool with that?” 

“Yeah.” Something feels different . Nico’s chest feels lighter. That waterfall he let free from his heart has cleansed his entire body of something that was festering there. 

Go figure. Every day he relearns that grudges are his fatal flaw. 

“Um… Hey, Percy?” Nico isn’t sure what compels him, but he peaks around the curtain, only visible above the nose. Something in his gut tells him he has to see Percy, has to know this whole conversation was real. And there he is, undisturbed by the hot fogging air, shock written in his features as he takes in Nico’s eyes. It fades quickly, expression replaced by something broken and lost that Nico has never seen on Percy’s face before. He looks ethereal, standing there in blue pajama pants and a graying t-shirt, black hair fluffy after his own shower. Nico swallows the Big Emotions™ in his throat and says the one thing he has such a hard time saying, still hiding his mouth behind the shower curtain: “Thank you.” Percy’s entire face goes gooey, green eyes warm and fuzzy with pride. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes and the soft lift of one side of his mouth into a smile threaten to make Nico slip and fall. 

Nico can only hold the meaningful eye contact for a second before he has to pull back and firmly put the shower curtain back in place. He wrings his hands in front of him, nerves only arriving now, even though the conversation is already done. 

“Don’t mention it,” Percy says, soft laugh ringing in the bathroom, and leaves, gently closing the door behind him. 

Nico finishes his shower in record time, desperate to stop the swirling thoughts of Percy and Luke and bisexuality. He doesn’t like the thoughts, or welcome them, but he is fifteen years old and there’s only so much he can do. 

Practically diving under the covers when he returns from his shower, Nico is eager to curl around Will and be done with the emotional exhaustion of the day. He got to borrow Will’s Star Wars themed sweatpants after all, not keen on sleeping in his underwear in the living room. His heart skips a beat every time he glances down and sees them, loose and too-long on his own body, Darth Vader’s face resting over his hip. 

There’s no dancing around the motions this time, they fall right into place side by side and bask in the eerie silence of the living room. 

Nico gets to be the big spoon tonight. How much shorter he is than Will is really emphasized when they cuddle, Nico’s knees knocking at Will’s thighs and mouth pressed against the curve of his shoulder. 

Holding Will makes Nico feel like he could protect him from everything bad in the world. Nico only wishes that were true.

Finally comfortable against well-loved pillows and the thin mattress of the pull out couch, Nico sets to talking Will’s ear off until they fall asleep. He doesn’t bring up that he and Percy talked in the bathroom. That feels like a conversation for another time, when Will isn’t sighing dreamily against him and smiling as his eyelids flutter from fighting sleep. 

And if Nico, awake with his own insomnia, sees Piper tiptoe from the master bedroom to Percy and Annabeth’s borrowed room in the middle of the night, tears running down her face and pillow clutched to her chest, his lips are sealed.

Chapter Text

The first thing Nico sees in his dream is Apollo. Well, not Apollo. Lester . Brighter, posture straight, a legs fraction longer, but recognizably Lester. 

As a son of Hades, Nico is used to accidentally dropping into other people’s business via his dreams. The dreaming world and the Underworld are closer to one another than people realize, so Nico doesn’t think much of it, just stands and watches the god lounge against soft grass. 

Nico is positioned in the shade of a large pine tree, the sun setting just over the edge of densely wooded hills. Familiar wooded hills… Nico tries to concentrate, bring the hazy edges of the dreaming world into sharper focus. 

Half-Blood Hill. He’s standing under Thalia’s tree. 

Apollo sits there in silence, calm in a way that looks wrong when it’s in Lester’s body. He was always so nervous, leg bouncing to invisible music or hands twitching for his bow that he wasn’t meant to use. The sun sets slowly, in real time, and Nico can’t help but wonder why he’s seeing Lester here, and not Apollo up in his chariot driving the sun through its daily dip in the sky. 

Nico gets his answer quicker than he thought. 

As soon as the last fraction of light melts below the horizon, a transparent figure shimmers into existence next to Lester. A ghost. The kind Nico is intimately familiar with. Desaturated, see-through, shining blue against the rising moon. It’s not dark enough yet for the spirit to fully materialize, so Nico has a hard time picking out any features that would make them recognizable.

“Settling in, down there?” Lester asks, turning his head to talk to his new companion. He even made himself generously acne-free. How nice of Apollo to do that for himself. He kept all the bumps and strange angles to his large nose, though, which Nico deeply appreciates. Anything else would be wrong on Lester’s face. 

The ghost nods, grown out crew cut coming into sharp relief as the shadow cast by the moon against Thalia’s tree grows to loom over them. Lester glows to compensate for the darkness, in the same way Will does when he’s nervous or excited, glow stick yellow.

“Good.” Lester turns his attention back to the horizon. 

They say nothing else, sitting and watching the same spot in the distance as time drones on, while Nico can only stand and watch. Is this happening now? Is this from weeks ago? The future? Nico can’t tell, and he can’t remember the time difference between Oklahoma and New York to do the math in his dreams. 

Eventually, the darkness of night encompasses everything. Even Apollo’s glow isn’t enough to combat the repressive darkness of the forest. The ghost shines crystal clear: wide shoulders, long sleeve button down, muscular arms, uniform slacks, hair once shaved close at the back grown out by a few weeks now, and only a hint of the ends of a pair of glasses. 

Nico can’t believe it. Nico doesn’t want to believe it. But then the ghost turns to look at Lester, saying something Nico can’t hear, and there he is. 

Jason Grace.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“Nico, wake up.”

Something is moving in his arms. Nico wants it to stop. Like, now. 

It’s definitely too early to be awake, judging by how his brain tries to jumpstart and immediately stalls. Nico pulls his sun plushie tighter to his chest, willing away the thing trying to disturb his slumber.

“Ow! How are you so strong? Nico, please, I have to use the bathroom!” Whoever is trying to communicate with him is whispering so harshly it definitely doesn’t count as whispering anymore. The hiss of it hurts Nico’s ears. 

“Whmmmgh,” Nico counters, very intelligent. 

“Death Boy, if you do not let go of me in the next five seconds I will do the whistle thing.”

Will.

“Noooooo.” Nico groans, trying to roll over and bring his plushy with him, but finds it far heavier than he’s expecting. It even lets out a little yelp as Nico manages to roll it on top of him but not all the way over. “Oww—” Nico finally opens his eyes to see what has happened to make his usual bed companion suddenly weigh so much and gets an eyeful of blonde hair and red, freckled cheeks, instead.

Oh. Oooh. …Oops.

“Sorry!” Nico immediately lets Will go. There’s a moment where Nico’s gut clenches, where he worries he’s ruined everything . He made Will uncomfortable, what he did was weird — and then Will giggles. Which makes Nico giggle. And they devolve into a pile of goo and laughter on the couch. 

“You had me in a death grip!” Will wheezes through his laughter, barely able to get a word out in between gasps. “I thought I was done for!” 

“I’m so sor—” Nico can’t finish apologizing, hiccuping from laughing too hard. Oxygen. He needs oxygen. 

“I— stop! I have to—!” Will rolls off of Nico, clutching his sides and bent over with his laughter. “I’ll be back!” 

Nico watches Will run off to the bathroom in the early morning sunlight, still giggling to himself. He lets out a sigh as he sinks into the pillow, relishing in the last of his fading laughs, smile plastered to his face. 

That was nice. Nico could wake up like that forever. 

Oh, hello , big thought. 

Gods. Forever?

He’s flooded with images of living with Will. Of falling asleep on the couch watching Star Wars and waking up disoriented and warm in each other's arms. Of coming home late to crawl into Will’s lap after a long week of running errands for his father. Maybe getting a cat or two, making dinner while he waits for Will to get home from school or work. Nico’s never had a home before. 

Real-life Will comes bounding out of the bathroom, putting the brakes on Nico’s spiral, and flops right back on top of him. 

“Good morning!” He says into Nico’s neck. Will pulls the covers back over both of them and wraps Nico into a tight hug, clinging to his side. 

“Too early,” Nico complains, but his heart isn’t in it. He’s too busy beaming at the sunny boy laid against his chest. 

“It’s after 8! You should consider yourself lucky, Mr. Night Owl.” And Will is right. Technically, technically, if they were at camp, Nico would already have to be awake. What Will is failing to consider, is that Nico is his cabin’s only occupant. Which also makes him the Hades cabin’s head counselor by default. So if he’s late to camp activities, who in his cabin is going to write him up? Himself? Unlikely.

“Right, mhm.” Nico can’t even bring himself to fully sass Will back. He’s too comfortable, too warm, too at peace. 

Nico blinks lazily up at the popcorn ceiling. Birds chirp outside, the wind blows against the windows. Will’s eyes are closed, giving Nico a chance to trace the freckles on his face into mini constellations. A thin beam of light sneaks under the uninspired curtains, determined to lay across Will’s face in a searing streak. It moves up and down with every curve of his face. Traces delicate features with morning glow. As though the sun absolutely had to reach him, had to hold Will in its hands. 

Perfection. 

Nico sends a tiny prayer in thanks to Apollo. He swears the sun shines brighter against Will’s face when he does. 

Which reminds Nico of his dream. He should tell Will about that. And about the conversation he had with Percy last night—

“Gooooood morning, America!” Leo’s voice overtakes the small living room. And there goes Nico’s perfect morning. “You decent, amigos?” He asks, yet he still walks into the space before they even answer. In fact, he chooses to lean over the side of the couch and look for himself.

“You suck, Valdez,” Nico grumbles, face red. He grabs the nearest pillow and chucks it at him, but Leo dodges Nico’s deadly projectile. How dare he not stand still and let Nico hit him.

Will sits up and stretches. The magic is gone. Goosebumps wrack Nico’s body in his absence. 

“And swallow!” Leo says, marching off to the kitchen.

Oh gods . Nico’s entire face goes red, face twisted with the psychic damage he just took. He hates that joke. Cecil from the Hermes cabin said it once, during an argument with Lou Ellen about whether or not he pranked the Hecate cabin. Nico made the mistake of asking him what it meant and why everyone was laughing so hard. Needless to say, that was not how Nico wanted to find out what oral was. 

Nico made Cecil swear on the River Styx he’d never tell anyone about their little… exchange. 

Will hops out of bed, unbothered by Leo’s joke other than some light snickering, and pads barefoot after Leo into the kitchen. Likely to root around for something healthy for breakfast. If there are any granola bars in Piper’s kitchen, they are not safe from Will Solace.

Nico stays in bed, running his own embarrassment back like an overused tape, until Will peeks his head back into the living room. 

“Breakfast?” Will asks him, toothy grin eating up his face as he holds up some fruit filled oat bar. 

“Not hungry.” Nico is immediately betrayed by the sound of his stomach growling. “...I’ll eat the stupid granola bar.” He holds out his open palm for it, staring at the ground —  but gets Will’s hand instead.

“There are other options, you know? I was just offering you what I was having! C’mon, let's go find something you like.” Will pulls Nico up by the hand he caught, forcing him out of bed. 

They find protein shakes in the side door of Piper’s fridge that taste like chocolate and everything holy (Nico really has to find out what minor god or goddess that is), and they stand side by side in the kitchen to eat their chosen meals. Leo lets them enjoy the silence, a miracle, eating his bowl of cereal while playing with a random collection of wires. 

All of their friends slowly trickle out of the rooms. Calypso first, fully dressed for the day in jeans and a white t-shirt, her hair pushed back with a thick headband. Peak fashion. Nico wonders if he could pull one off. Maybe then his hair would stay out of his eyes. 

“What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” Leo wiggles his eyebrows at her.

“Clearly not you.” Nice one, Calypso. Nico stops himself from holding a hand out for a high five. He’s not sure if she’s the type, yet. Annabeth? She would have loved his high five. 

Speaking of Annabeth, she’s the next of their crew to appear, wearing a pair of Percy’s plaid boxers and a large New Rome University t-shirt that says “Swim Team Captain” on the back. Does Annabeth own any of her own clothes? Nico can’t call her out on it, considering he’s still wearing Will’s sweatpants.

Everyone is expecting Percy next, but it’s Piper that follows, leaving out of the same door. She’s braless, in a very thin gray tank top, and Nico has to very pointedly look at her forehead. 

Will’s eyes follow the same trail as Nico’s: Piper, Piper’s chest, the floor, the ceiling. Staring is rude. Purposefully looking away is also rude. There is no winning. 

“Kicked the boys to the couch just to sleep in Percy and Annabeth’s bed? You’re cold, McLean!” Leo is, somehow, completely unfazed by Piper’s state of dress. She shoots Leo the middle finger, saying nothing as she hunts in her own fridge for breakfast.

Nico’s cheeks don’t get a chance to cool down before Percy waltzes into the kitchen too. Shirtless. Messy black hair sticking in every direction, looking like he spent the day before on the beach. In very loose, very low-riding blue pajama pants. Cristo . 

Is this normal?! Everyone else is acting like this is normal. Nico and Will, however, run their socially-acceptable-gaze dance from the start. 

Percy. Percy’s chest. The floor. The ceiling. 

Wow, they’re so in sync. How cute. Nico can’t wait to spend the entire morning staring at the popcorn ceiling, he’s going to find so many cool shapes up here. Oh, look, it’s Cerberus chasing a lost soul!

“Good morning, everybody!” Percy is just as chipper as Leo, pouring himself his own bowl of cereal. If any of them notice how squirmy Will and Nico are, none of them say anything. Thank the gods. (Again, not Eros. Fuck Eros.) 

How they all fit in this tiny wooden kitchen is unknown to Nico. All of them are standing, using various linoleum countertops as tables. There are three separate hushed conversations happening, and Nico is participating in none of them. 

“So… who’s ready to see the schedule?” Piper hops up to sit on the countertop where her plate was two seconds ago. Nico makes more purposeful eye contact in this moment than he’s ever made in his entire life collectively. (Yes, he’s gay. He’s just having a hard time not looking . It’s like he’s actively having to fight his eyes. Camp is not the kind of place people walk around in pajamas.) 

“Shed-ool?” Leo says around a half-chewed bite of Cap'n Crunch. 

“Why do you always talk with your mouth full?” Calypso means for only Leo to hear her, but the staredown they have with equally unimpressed expressions is very public. 

“Yes, schedule. I couldn’t sleep, so Annabeth and I stayed up and planned a bunch of stuff for us to do!” Great. Nico is so excited to go from a camp where his every hour is scheduled to a vacation where his every hour is scheduled. Isn’t life amazing?

The thought must bleed onto his face, because Piper rolls her eyes at him and smiles. “Oh, come on! It’ll be fun!” 

She pulls a folded up piece of paper out of the world’s tiniest pocket in her pajama shorts and lays it out on the counter next to her. 

To Nico’s delight, there does not seem to be hour to hour scheduling. A few activities are listed under each day in bullet points. 

“I thought today, since it’s Sunday and it’ll be empty, I could give you guys a very legal tour of my high school! There’s not exactly a lot to see, but it’s better than being cooped up all day. I figured we could save the serious talk for tomorrow, after we’ve all enjoyed each other’s company a little. And then board games and campfires for the rest of the week!”

Okay, so, maybe Nico was being dramatic. It really seems unnecessary that they wrote such a loose plan down, though. They had him worried for a second there.

“I could go for some light trespassing on the Lord’s Day.” Percy strokes his chin like he’s genuinely considering the prospect. Nico definitely looks at his face and nowhere else. No where else. …When did Percy get that big scar on his left rib? 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Turns out Piper’s idea of a very legal tour of her high school is not very legal at all. Nico did not pick up on the sarcasm.

“Bro— pull!” Percy is trying to get Leo up and over the tall chain link fence surrounding Piper’s school. Leo has both feet on Percy’s shoulders, stuck folded by the stomach over the top of the fence. 

“And why couldn’t I just unlock the main gate?” Leo whines, so out of breath it’s hard to tell what he’s saying. 

“Because there are cameras there!” Piper watches Leo struggle with no remorse. She was the first one to make it to the other side of the fence. Then Annabeth, then Percy, and then Nico absolutely cheated by grabbing Will’s hand and pulling them into the shadows before the other boy could protest. The two-foot jump between tree shadows takes no effort, but he has to listen to a lecture from Will afterwards anyways. It’s hard to take Will seriously when he’s so green in the face that he matches his plaid button-down. Shadow travel always makes Will nauseous. 

Totally worth it. Because then Leo and Calypso can’t get over the fence and Percy has to climb back to the other side to help them out. And Nico gets to watch Leo flounder from where he’s sitting in the grass. If only he’d brought popcorn.

“Shouldn’t you be good at this?” Percy is sweating, halfway between laughing and whining and one slip away from letting Leo impale himself on the fence.

“Wow! I’ll have you know, my abuelita came here hiding in a truck, not hopping the border! Oh fu—” Leo is laughing so hard he almost tips himself over the edge of the fence face first onto the ground. He catches himself at the last second by stomping directly on Percy’s face. 

“For the love of—” There’s a grunt, a shove, and a sound equivalent to a sack of potatoes hitting the ground. Nico watches one of the buttons from Leo’s white button-down go flying. 

“Ow!” Leo groans, but he’s on the correct side of the fence now, so a win is a win. Will rushes over to check for broken bones. Nico stays criss-cross apple-sauce in the shade of the tree because he’s not done enjoying his free entertainment and Will definitely has this one. If Nico goes over there all he’ll be able to do is make fun of Leo, and his ego seems bruised enough.

Percy holds his hand out to Calypso next. “Are you going to step on my face?”

“Uh, no?” She doesn’t sound convinced. 

“Good, because I’m not into that.” There’s a smattering of laughter and Nico can’t help but feel like another joke went over his head. 

Percy kneels down, letting Calypso climb up on his shoulders. It seems to be going well until Percy stands up and she gets her hands on the fence. Calypso immediately goes for the exact same tactic as Leo and wedges herself into a taco on top of the fence. Did she learn nothing?

“Oh gods—” She groans, trying to lift her stomach off of the angular metal digging into her guts. The movement pitches her forward. Nico watches as she loses her balance, flailing but finding nothing to grab onto, and falls directly on top of Leo and Will.

Nico doesn’t know any of the curse words Leo lets out in rapid Spanish. He does, however, know they are curse words. That tone of voice? Universal.

“I’m sorry!” Calypso tries to stand but digs a kneecap into Will’s ribs on her way up. He flinches, hard, knocking her back over and they all end up right back where they started: a heap of demigods on the grass.

Nico doesn’t know what keeps him rooted under this tree, but he doesn’t make a single move to help them. Probably the fact that it’s pretty fucking funny. Annabeth and Piper must agree, because they’re also too busy doubled over with laughter to help.

Percy Jackson to the rescue! He comes hoping over the fence like a Baywatch Lifeguard and runs over to the pile, extending hands left and right to help extract them from one another. 

“Off to a great start, everyone!” Percy laughs, dusting off Leo’s jacket and helping Calypso untangle her hair from the tall weeds in the grass. Will fends for himself, brushing grass from his flannel and plucking stray plants from his hair. He makes for a very cute Chia Pet. 

“I missed going on quests,” Annabeth sighs, too much nostalgia in her voice for what is arguably the worst part of demigod life. It earns her a death stare from everyone present. 

“Aw, c’mon, really? You guys don’t like quests even a little bit? I loved being on the Argo II!” 

“Yeah, so much fun! If you completely ignore all of the murder, death, and the fact that it was a quest!” Leo places his hands on his hips, sass fully engaged. Very intimidating with the twigs sticking out of his dense curls. Calypso suppresses her giggle, pinching her mouth tight and looking anywhere but at Leo. Will goes for the classic hand slapped over the mouth. Percy tries to get Leo’s attention and motion for him to remove the sticks, but it’s a futile endeavor.

“...Point taken. What I meant to say is that I missed hanging out with everyone.” Annabeth slings an arm around Piper’s shoulders. “Now, about that very legal tour we were promised!”

Sequoyah High School is an expansive outdoor campus, composed of many house-sized red brick buildings, modern windows and white roofs shining in the midday sun. 

Nico’s never been to a normal American high school before, but he’s seen enough coming of age movies with the Apollo cabin. He can imagine it in full swing. High schoolers running around on the football field, students rushing through the main building trying to make it from class to class, and a quick choreographed dance break so the main character can sing about their feelings. 

Nico wonders what regular teenagers talk about as they walk through the halls. The weather? Their classes? Nico has a hard time picturing what life would be like as a full mortal, not a drop of godly blood in sight. What is there to do ? 

Chase your dreams? Get to know yourself? Sounds agonizing. 

“The main building has this cute little courtyard in the center! I had to fight the vice principal there two weeks ago. Turns out she was a harpy in more ways than one.” Piper gestures to the building they’re currently ducking under the windows of. Even if there’s not supposed to be anyone here on the weekend— but Nico is not going to be the one guy not ducking.

“That happened to me once. My math teacher Mrs. Dodds turned out to be Alecto,” Percy says, as if that is even close to the same thing.

“Alecto, as in, Alecto the Fury?! The Unceasing One?” Shock ripples across Nico’s face. “When did that happen?” 

“Oh, that was before I got to Camp Half-Blood.”

“What?!” It’s Will’s turn to be shocked now. “Oh my gods, I would be so dead. If my mom didn’t bring me to camp so young I really think I wouldn’t have made it. I can barely use a sword now !”

Percy shrugs. Because nothing is a big deal when you’ve saved the world twice, Nico supposes. 

“That was the first time I used Riptide, actually!” Percy fishes the celestial bronze pen out of his pocket to twirl it around fondly. 

“Your life scares me.” Piper raises a single eyebrow, stopping her slow crouch-walk forward to give Percy a look . However, when she turns around, a shadow overtakes her form.

Nico follows it, from the shape of the head to the wide torso that blocks the sun from hitting Piper’s back, all the way up the long lines of its crooked legs. Yep. Just what Nico expected. A normal group of cheerleaders. 

Wait, what?

“Can we… help you?” Annabeth asks. Hilarious, considering they’re the ones trespassing on the grounds of a high school they do not attend, crouched over and huddled in their group of seven. But if Annabeth embodies anything, it’s confidence. 

“I don’t know, can you?” The leader, whose shadow still looms over a stiff wide-eyed Piper, is a tall, Native American boy with long black hair, tied back into a loose low ponytail. Impractical for a sport like cheering, but Nico is willing to bet the choice is for style over function. He looks too old to be in high school. Or maybe it’s the perfectly clear skin and chiseled jaw tricking Nico into thinking that. Possible, given how distracted Nico is by his white, red, and black tight cheerleader uniform pants. And Nico means it when he says they are tight . Will aims an elbow for Nico’s ribs, catching him looking, but only manages to jab Nico in the arm instead. 

“What do you want, Jakobe?” Piper stands, fully disregarding the window to her left, and turns to face him. Her voice is flat, it’s clear she’s actively trying not to use her charmspeak. Why? Nico would like to talk to this guy and his group of little cheerleaders for as little time as possible.

“I’m getting deja-vu,” Percy whispers to Annabeth, who seems to be scouting an escape route. Nico relaxes. His friends have the hard parts: the thinking, the talking. Nico will focus on what he’s good at. If blades are drawn, he’ll be the first to strike. 

“What do I want?” Jakobe snickers. “We were practicing on the field, and then all the sudden, we see you crawling across campus with your little friends that you talk so much about. All I want is to get to know them a little. Isn’t that right?” Jakobe turns around to fake-consult his small posse. Two young girls and a boy, all far slighter in stature than Jakobe, giggle and nod. He returns his gaze to Piper, blindingly white smile satisfied and predatory at the same time. 

It reminds Nico of Eros. Gross .

On instinct, Nico goes to make eye contact with Jason to see if he agrees— but Jason isn’t with them. He snaps his eyes back to Piper and shoves his emotions down, hard, along with the bile that rises in his throat. Now is not the time. 

Piper is unfazed. It could be because she’s used to the behavior from Jakobe himself, or has experience from her time in the Aphrodite cabin. Either way, she shrugs, and gestures for all of them to stand. 

Nico does so with visible warryness. He peers into the window they were avoiding as he stands, only to find its mirrored glass. Oh, hey there, face. Nice to see you. He doesn’t look half bad today, the Deftones shirt was an excellent choice. Kayla is almost too good at picking shirts that fit him perfectly. 

He’s definitely not worried about what he looks like in front of this group of hot cheerleaders. For sure. That would be ridiculous. Will elbows him again, giving him the stink eye in the window’s reflection.

“Jakobe and crew, these are my Summer camp friends,” Piper lists all of their names, pointing as she goes. Finishing with, “There. Now do I have your permission to continue showing them around or—?” Piper lifts an eyebrow. 

“Sure! Well, you have my permission, but it’s not me that you have to worry about. You know that!” Jakobe turns his back to them, the back of his uniform reads Bearpaw-Thorpe. He walks past his groupies, gesturing a dismissal over his back. “I’ll see whoever survives back at the football field!”

Nico thinks this is a great cue to pull out his sword. Percy must agree, because the familiar sound of Riptide uncapping rings out a half second later. 

“That mother fucker— Don’t destroy my high school! Watch it with the elemental pow—” Piper doesn’t get a chance to finish her sentence, directed at Leo and Percy. All three tiny, sweet cheerleaders light on fire, hair going up in flames, and their legs transform to match the twisted shadows Nico saw earlier across the dead grass. Empousai.

“I knew it!” Percy shouts.

“Oh, fuck no!” Leo grabs Calypso and they both duck behind the more experienced sword fighters in their group. Nico shoves Will behind himself in similar fashion, leaving him, Percy, and Annabeth at the front. If things get dicey, Will and Calypso are the best support they have, so staying to the back is their best bet. Leo and Piper take up the sides. Three versus seven. Should be easy. The two female Empousai-cheerleaders lunge first, going for Percy and Annabeth, pin-straight dark hair whipping up in the dance of the flames on their head. They giggle, even as they sprint awkwardly on one bionic and one donkey leg, claws at the ready. 

Percy dodges the first, placing the monster between him and Annabeth to put her in striking range with her dagger. Watching the two of them fight side by side is like watching the world’s most graceful yet complicated dance. Each move they make is predicted ten steps ahead by the other, and the first Empousai is down before the third even launches into battle. 

Or so Nico thought, but he was distracted watching Annabeth and Percy demolish their enemy, and a sharp set of claws get dangerously close to his face before a fireball slams into the male Empousai running for Nico, tripping on air (which is no accident, if Calypso’s raised arms are any indication). 

Nico shakes himself out of it, rounding on his opponent. He’s scrawny, rivaling Nico, but in a more feminine way. Big, dark brown eyes and soft hair engulfed in flames. Unlike Jakobe, he’s wearing the skirt version of the cheerleading uniform, matching the other Empousai. Which Nico tries really hard not to stare at (and fails). 

A lot of feelings run through Nico’s body in sharp pangs all at once. Most of them very bad and tied in a nice ribbon of self-hatred, some of them good in a way Nico should not be feeling right now. Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look —

“Aw, come on! Don’t you wanna play?” The boy asks, eyes going shiny in the sunlight. It’s unnatural. The wind ruffles his short skirt like magic, smile coy and femme. Something wells inside of Nico that makes his head feel like it’s full of cotton balls. He tries to focus on the donkey leg jutting out of the tiny outfit. A monster. It’s just a monster.  

“I don’t play ,” Nico spits out, pulling on the string of his own mental self-flagellating to clear his head, shocking the Empousa. It gives Nico a split second of advantage, shaking the fuzzy feeling and charging forward to get the upper-hand. He slashes heavily with his sword, reaching to keep himself out of range of sharp claws. 

This Empousa is a little more practiced, dodging Nico’s first few strikes gracefully. He even does a back-handspring at one point, which is absolutely overkill. Nico will admit he watches a little more rapt than he should. 

Who is letting high school cheerleaders wear these tiny outfits? That skirt barely covers anything! And since when do boy cheerleaders wear skirts?! 

“They seduce their prey!” Percy calls out to Nico, smacking him in the back of the head with his non-sword hand as he runs past, the last remaining female Empousa hot on his tail. 

He’ll be fine. It looks like Annabeth is chasing the Empousa more than the Empousa is chasing him. Piper is trailing Annabeth for fun, laughing as she chases the trio, waving her dagger around wildly. At least one of them is having fun.

“Great! Thank you so much for the helpful information—” Nico stabs forward at his own opponent again.

“You’re doing great, babe! Maybe you could stare less, though? You’re doing a lot of staring!” Will calls from the sidelines. Won’t everyone shut up and let Nico fight in peace? And yet, the sound of Will’s voice helps. Nico feels himself re-center in his body, arms less heavy and eyes less focused on the Empousa’s eyes, more focused on his claws. 

Leo, who was throwing useless fireballs and screwdrivers from his tool belt, hollers, “Keep talking, Will!” 

“Keep talking?! What am I supposed to talk about?” 

Nico swipes left, sidesteps right. The Empousa gets tangled in the move, letting Nico knock him with the pommel of his sword. He staggers back, delicate tan hand clutching his now-dented forehead. 

“Doesn’t matter, just talk to Nico! The Empousa is messing with his head,” Calypso shouts, picking up what Leo was putting down.

They do an odd dance, Nico spinning to dodge raking claws as the Empousa circles him at the same time. The hem of his skirt twirls hypnotically. Burning dark eyes swirl in Nico’s vision. Nico has to stagger back and take a defensive position to avoid taking nails to the chest.

“Nico! Focus! Uh— Guys, it’s usually really easy to talk to him but this is a lot of pressure!” 

“It’s helping!” Nico yells over his shoulder. The glimpse he gets of Will, stressed and sweaty, is worth almost getting slashed on the unmarred side of his face.

Retake the offensive. Lunge left, arc to the right, swipe down, keep looking at his face— Nico pushes forward, gaining ground on the Empousa. He just needs one good stab—

“You could totally pull off that outfit!” Will blurts.

Poof . Nico lands a hit right in the center of the Empousa’s chest, sword skewering him to the hilt. He turns to dust on Nico’s blade.

Nico is red in the face, but not from the exertion of fighting. He very deliberately avoids looking at Will, who he can tell is glowing with embarrassment from the corner of his vision. It would be easier if Calypso and Leo would stop laughing. He can’t tell if they’re laughing at Nico’s face or the idea or Will or—

Does Will really think— Can boys really—?

Percy, Annabeth, and Piper jog back over, covered in yellow dust and giggling. Nico shoves the thought down for later. That’s an inside thought. To mull over by himself until it eats him alive inside, Nico’s favorite. 

“Did you win your twink one v. one?” Piper asks Nico with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Nico splutters, already-red cheeks going hot scarlet. 

“I am not a twink!” Nico protests. The problem is he only has a vague idea of what a twink is. He knows people the Apollo cabin agrees are twinks (like Tom Holland) and which ones are twunks instead, or borderline otters, whatever the Hades that is. It’s a common debate over dinner. But he’s been too afraid to ask for a definition. 

Nico doesn’t like the way his friends are howling with laughter about it, so he decides then and there he will die on the hill that he is not a twink. 

“Will, please,” Nico turns to plead with Will to put a stop to this madness. His own boyfriend is also doubled over in laughter. Traitor!

“I am going to ensure you all end up in the Fields of Punishment!” Nico threatens, but it doesn’t have any of the usual weight to it. He’s catching the giggles himself, watching Leo roll around in the grass and Percy hold his sides he’s wheezing so hard. 

Nico caves. How is he not supposed to laugh in these conditions? His friends make it very hard to be mysterious and moody. 

In between giggles, Nico forces out, “Will someone at least explain what a twink is to me?!” 

Which starts a whole new round of laughter from the top. 

Sick and twisted. Sick and twisted! All of Nico’s friends are dead to him. As soon as he’s done laughing, he’s sending them all to see his father.

“Nico—” Will hobbles over to him, but only manages to get a hand on Nico’s shoulder before collapsing against him with laughter. 

They slowly sink to the ground, Nico unable to hold Will up in his own delirium. By the time the hysterics turn to light giggling turns into all of them panting for breath, everyone but Calypso and Annabeth are laying in the grass amongst the monster dust. 

“Someone—” Nico has to pause to collect himself so he doesn’t start the cycle all over again. “Someone has to explain it to me! This isn’t fair.” 

They all look around at each other. “Should I—” “No, don’t, I—” “No way I’m going to—” There’s another round of laughter as they try to stop talking over each other. 

“Okay, okay! I’ll do it.” Piper volunteers herself, which Nico could not be more grateful for. “It’s mostly a gay men thing. Where you, like, categorize them by… looks? Physique?” 

“Wow I hate it already.” Nico rolls his eyes, hard. 

“Twinks are the smallest category. They’re usually slim and… what’s the right word here?” 

“Youthful?” Annabeth supplies Piper. 

“Perfect, yes, thank you. Gods I was trying so hard to avoid the word boyish. Gross,” Piper laughs. “But, and I am so sorry to say this Nico, you definitely don’t qualify for the next category up. So, you’re a twink.” 

“It’s okay, bud,” Leo says from where he’s spread eagle in singed grass. “Me too.” 

“I thought it was for gay men? Do you have something you’d like to share, Leo?” Nico is proud of the laugh he gets for that one. 

“Oh, fuck off, di Angelo! I was trying to support you, man.” Nico does feel supported. He is not telling Leo that. Ever. 

“What does that make Will?” Nico asks. He feels like there’s something more important they could be doing. Like finding where Jakobe went. Or cleaning up their monster fight mess. But they have all day, and there are no looming quest deadlines, so Nico doesn’t move a muscle. 

“Hmm… I don’t know if Will qualifies for twunk either.” Piper fully sits up, examining Will from above. 

“No offense to Will, but definitely not.” Annabeth gets the final say on the matter, which has nothing to do with the fact that she’s cleaning her dagger as she makes the claim. 

“None taken.” Will giggles. “Percy is definitely a twunk, though.”

“Right now, yeah, but he definitely has otter potential , you know?” Piper leans in, fully engaged with Will. The charmspeak flows off of her on accident and Nico finds himself nodding in agreement. “Like if he grew a beard? It’d be over.” 

“I thought I was a himbo?” Percy asks Annabeth, way too much adorable confusion on his face to be legal in any of the 50 states. “Or is that different?” 

“That’s different.” Annabeth pats his head fondly, brushing yellow dust out of Percy’s black mess of hair.

“Dam.” 

They lay there, chatting and catching their breath, for at least fifteen minutes. At last, Piper speaks up. “We should head down to the football field before Jakobe gets bored and comes looking for us.” 

They all clamber up with various levels of success. It takes Nico a few tries with Will’s help to stand up fully, knees wobbly. They make eye-contact and Nico remembers his comment all over again— blush re-appearing with a vengeance as he has to look away.

“So, who is Jakobe and why didn’t he also attack us? Is he not an Empousa?” Percy stuffs his hands in his pockets, keeping pace with Piper’s brisk walk to ask questions. 

“Nah, you’ll see. I wouldn’t wanna ruin his dramatic speech by spoiling everything now.” Piper rolls her eyes, but her smile is warm. Is she making friends with monsters? That seems ill-advised, and Nico talks to dead people. So he would know.

“Why didn’t you try to charmspeak them?” Thankfully, Leo asks what was on Nico’s mind. Usually, with Piper around, they don’t even get to the fighting portion of the battle. It’s a lot of talking in circles until the monsters either dust themselves or completely leave them alone. 

“Empousai also have charmspeak, so it’s not worth it. It’ll barely work on them, if at all. Plus, Jakobe really isn’t worth charmspeaking. Trust me.” 

It’s a fair take, but Nico has both heard of and witnessed Piper take on much more powerful charmspeakers in direct competition and come out on top every time. Surely Jakobe can’t be more powerful than Medea.

Nico doesn’t get the chance to ask. He thinks about asking for too long, anxiously waits for a break in conversation even longer, and by then they’ve reached the football fields, Jakobe in view. He’s standing smack in the center of the field, nobody else around. 

“Oh, good! I was going to be disappointed if you all died before I could properly introduce myself!” His arms are outspread, and Nico wonders if he wouldn’t be more suited for the drama club than cheerleading. 

“Aw, you care about me?” Piper responds, sarcastic. 

“I wouldn’t say that.” The two stand, eye to eye, grins sharp. Piper always has this air around her that, even when she has to look up at someone, she still has the upperhand. 

“So, about that introduction…?” Leo ends their standoff, eyebrow raised. All of them are curious about this Jakobe guy, at this point. It’s clear that he’s not Piper’s friend, but he seems friendly enough. Even if he sicced monsters on them.

“Yes! I’m Jakobe Bearpaw-Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation, Legacy of Hecate. And the very friendly Empousai you killed made up half the Sequoyah High cheerleading team! What a shame, I’ll have to resummon them tomorrow.”

“You can summon those things?” Percy looks deeply horrified by this, eyeing Jakobe like he’s an all-powerful Titan and not a legacy demigod in very tight white pants. Nico doesn’t mean to keep coming back to this, but those pants? They’re tight. Which reminds him of the skirt. Which reminds him of Will’s comment. Which has him blushing, again, for the third time.

“Empousai are commanded by Hecate. They were only after you because they joined the Titan’s side during the war,” Annabeth answers Percy, putting the pieces together. It’s quite the legacy power, to be able to summon monsters at will. The only other demigod Nico has seen do that besides himself was Meg McCaffrey, and Peaches was a vicious little karpos who came in clutch many, many times.

“The Empousai need practice and I like keeping my battle skills sharp, so it’s a win-win.” Piper shrugs, because taking on three Empousai all by yourself is totally not a big deal. 

“They don’t need practice, they need to be knocked down a peg,” Jakobe snarls. There it is— Nico sees the godly blood in him now from how his eyes flash. There’s a simmering power behind them, one he sees in Hazel’s golden eyes when she wields Hecate’s magic and bends the Mist to her will. 

“Jakobe’s great-grandpa was Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win a gold medal for the U.S. in the Olympics. Pretty sick, right?” Piper seems far more excited about this than Jakobe is. He only rolls his eyes.

“I thought he was a football player?” Percy asks. Nico did not know Percy knew anything about American football and he is deeply upset by this. He briefly considers announcing their peace-talk from last night null and void. 

“That too. And an actor, and a construction worker, and a security guard. You get the picture.” Arms crossed, snarl still plastered across his face, Jakobe looks to be getting tired of the conversation. This is an emotion Nico can easily identify. It’s one he feels often.

“Sounds like a lot of crossroads,” Annabeth points out. Hecate can never resist a good Big Life Decision. 

“Right, anyways—” Jakobe pulls his ponytail out in annoyance and redoes it, much higher this time. “Since you defeated my cheer-squad, I guess I owe you a reward. Do you guys want to see inside the school, or what?” He must be using magic to make himself sparkle, already high cheekbones glinting sharp in the sunlight. Not like Will. Will glows, thrives under the touch of the sun. Jakobe looks like he belongs on the vampire’s side in Twilight. Except, as Austin pointed out while they were watching the first movie, only white people get to be vampires, apparently. 

Nico still isn’t sure where he stands in that. He tried to ask Annabeth, once, if being Italian made him white— He’s certainly pale enough these days. His complexion is slowly coming back (but not fast enough). — and ended up sitting through a four hour lecture on the history of people of Italian and Irish descent in the United States. Nico tried so hard to listen but he got distracted by a cool looking bug that was crawling around in the grass for five minutes and when he tuned back in he was so lost . He has ADHD, okay? And maybe some other things that Will keeps suggesting he get tested for. Sue him. 

Making their way inside, they don’t have to worry about the cameras with Jakobe present. He holds his hand up to any of the cameras and shields them with the mist, buying them enough time for Leo to jimmy their way in through a side-door. 

The walls are a boring yellow-tan, the floors the same with little red tiles placed randomly throughout.

“I do not miss high school,” Percy mutters to Annabeth, just in Nico’s earshot, a visible shudder racking his body. Annabeth laughs at him with a roll of her eyes, jogging to catch up with Piper. 

 They walk down the halls, voices echoing, Leo and Piper playing “Don’t Touch the Lava” hopping from red tile to red tile. 

Nico ignores the chatter, much more enamored by the look on Will’s face. Blonde eyebrows pinch together, the smallest of white smiles gracing his face. It sits wrong, though. Uncomfortable, a little sad.

Nico reaches over and takes Will’s hand.

Will catches the questioning gaze Nico sends his way, but he says nothing, only squeezes Nico’s hand in response. He forces his smile a little wider, but his eyebrows don’t unfurl. Nico isn’t buying it.

“What's wrong?” Nico scoots closer, watching their friends bounce around the halls, listening to stories from Jakobe and Piper. Nico likes lagging behind. He likes that Will likes lagging behind with him.

There’s a deep sigh. Nico still doesn’t look over, trying to give Will the privacy of his own expressions while he decides if he wants to talk about it. 

“Do you ever wish you were born a mortal?”

“No,” Nico answers immediately. A year ago, he wouldn’t have hesitated to say yes. He spent a lot of time picturing what life would be like if it was anything but his own. Self-loathing was his middle name. He’d often sit in the palace of his own mind and fiddle with escapist fantasies, nothing else to do with no friends, no home, no family.

A lot of those fantasies involved a certain black-haired boy with ocean eyes.

But now? It’s too hard to picture, to stomach. Who would he be if Hades wasn’t his father? Without the death of his sister? Without everything he went through with Percy? Without finding Hazel? Without Jason or Will? No, Nico has seen a lot. Life has sucked. Majorly. But it’s his life. 

Will winces at Nico’s fast answer, so it’s safe to bet he doesn’t feel the same.

“Do… do you wish you were born a mortal?” Nico asks back, soft and tentative. He tells himself he’s not going to be upset by Will’s answer. Will not wanting the pain of demigod life doesn’t mean he regrets meeting Nico, even if that’s where his brain heads first in a spiraling anxiety. 

“Not— It’s not that I wish I was born a mortal. I guess I just wonder what it would be like. The simplicity of it all. It seems… nice.” Will looks around wistfully. “I wouldn’t trade camp or my siblings or you for the world, though.” Will gives Nico a real smile, large and full of love, just for him. Does he have a paid subscription to all of Nico’s thoughts, or something? Why isn’t Nico getting a cut of those profits? 

There’s something there. Something in the way Will phrases it, something in the look in his eyes. Nico watches Will fiddle with his camp necklace, thumbing at the skull ring hanging there. Bianca’s broken promise to Nico, Nico’s promise to Will. 

“Life can be simpler. Percy and Annabeth are going to college together. Piper is living out here with her dad. There’s a world where you can have both, you know?” Nico is convincing himself, too, as he says it. He spent so long running, fighting, that settling in at Camp Half-Blood was his toe-dip into simplicity. This is his settled-down life. In theory, he knows there’s more. Better. He’s just not sure what that looks like for him, yet.

“But then who would run the infirmary?” Will’s eyes take on that pained look from earlier. 

Ah, so that’s what this is about. Will meant it literally.

Everyone’s lives at camp are in his hands 24/7. He’s always on call or taking shifts or tending to the sick. He never participated in the more potentially life-threatening camp activities until Nico came around with the promise that he could get Will back to the infirmary to tend to any grievously wounded with a quick shadow travel. Nico knows it’s all Will can think about. It’s all he can afford to think about, most of the time. Demigods don’t tend to spec into the self-preservation skill.

Nico can’t blame Will for being a control freak about the infirmary. It’s been his job since he was twelve years old. When Lee died in the Battle of Manhattan, there was no one else to take over the infirmary but tiny little Will, the power of the sun in his hands and the death of siblings he couldn't save weighing heavy in his heart. 

They spend a lot of time talking about how Nico could improve his life, but Will rarely lets the conversation turn to himself . Every time Nico tries, Will brushes him off. This feels like it’s going to be Nico’s one and only shot.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

“Will—” 

“Guys! We should totally pull a prank on one of the classrooms!” Leo’s face is pressed up against the window of one of the classroom doors, interrupting Nico’s attempt.

He watches Will pull the mask back up, smile tight across his face, and knows the moment is gone. 

Everyone else catches up with Leo, but Nico doesn’t move. He watches Will drift away from him, hand slipping out of his grip. 

Damnit.

“We should talk.” Jakobe shocks Nico out of his staring. Seems he’s not keen on watching Leo pull whatever crazy prank he has in mind. 

Nico only hums his affirmation, lifting a tight eyebrow in question. He’s still wary of Jakobe. The boy may be a fellow demigod, but he’s a stranger. And some of the cruelest people Nico has ever known were once demigods. 

Jakobe remains unfazed by Nico’s cold shoulder. He certainly doesn’t look like the warm, cuddly type himself. They stand side by side, watching their friends flutter from classroom to classroom, deciding what prank to pull and where, Will and Annabeth playing the voices of reason. The older boy flips a long strand of hair behind his shoulder, having forgone his pony-tail at some point, scrunchie now around his wrist instead. Nico forces himself not to look at the stupid tight cheerleading pants again. Three times is definitely too many. 

The problem is that Jakobe is much taller than Nico, almost as tall as Jason ( was ) and there’s nothing Nico hates more than having to look up at people. That’s the excuse he’s going to fall on in his head when he can’t stop himself from looking down at the pants again — four times.

“I had a dream about you,” Jakobe says. Which, in any context that is not a demigod one, is a pretty creepy thing to say to someone you just met.

“If it wasn’t a good one, I don’t want to know.” Nico is not in the business of receiving another prophecy right now. He and Will just got back from Tartarus, thank you very much. He would like to live his fifteen-year-old demigod life in relative peace for, at the bare minimum, a month. And if Jakobe has bad news for him, Nico would prefer to simply wait and find out for himself when it happens.

Nico doesn’t need to look at Jakobe to know he’s rolling his eyes, the bitchiness radiates off of him in a way that makes Nico want to ask if he’s sure he’s not a child of Aphrodite. Or, worse, a child of Eros .

“Listen, kid, I’d tell Piper but this is the first time I’ve seen her smile in, like, forever. So I’m not going to ruin today for her.” Jakobe’s near-black eyes bore into Piper as she digs through Leo’s tool belt for prank supplies. Nico knows from his own experience that this means Jakobe does care about Piper. Demigods have weird ways of showing their affection sometimes. Nico understands. He thought taking Percy to the Underworld to dip in the river Styx was a profession of his undying love. Oh, how far he’s come. 

“Don’t call me kid.” 

Jakobe’s mouth pinches into a thin line. “Do you want to know what I saw, or not?”

It’s Nico’s turn to roll his eyes. He crosses his arms across his chest, fully prepared to tell Jakobe to go fuck himself. And then… he catches sight of Will. Cross-legged next to Piper, laughing together as they pull sticky note pad after sticky note pad out of Leo’s magic belt. 

If something’s coming, Will would want to be prepared. 

“...Fine.” Nico uncrosses his arms, extending his metaphorical olive branch by relaxing his posture and giving Jakobe his full attention. He’s still not over the kid comment, though. There may be roughly three years between them, but Nico would bet all of his mortal possessions that he wins in the life experiences department. Nico lets shadows seep into his eyes, pulling on the depths of the earth and the hundreds of souls he can feel whose resting place is beneath his feet. Because it’s not often he gets to work his Underworld intimidation on someone new. He directs all of that energy at Jakobe with a single look.

It works. Jakobe scoffs and turns away, visibly upset by the eye contact they made. Excellent. 

“The dream wasn’t long. Piper was the only person I recognized. But you , you were there.” Jakobe shoots him an accusatory side-eye. “You and Piper were arguing over something I don’t really remember, and there was a guy standing between the two of you. Blonde, blue-eyed, white boy? Tall and muscular ? That’s all I know, but the dream felt important.” 

Nico doesn’t want to believe… 

“That’s not very specific,” he says. Because it’s true. Nico has a hard time imagining he’d argue with Piper over anything. There’s not enough to parse through that part of Jakobe’s dream. However… the boy he described standing between them? Blonde, blue-eyed, white boy— and the way he said muscular , the shift in his tone that implied he was describing someone attractive . It’s obviously no one in their little group, or Nico is sure Jakobe would have tried his luck talking to them first. Which is good, because technically Will fits that description, and the thought of Jakobe even looking in Will’s direction makes Nico’s blood boil. 

Nico is fully aware he has a rampant jealousy issue. It’s low priority right now on the List of Problems with his Mental Well-being.

“Oh, my bad. Let me just remember every detail of a dream I had a month ago.” Jakobe arches a pristine black eyebrow. Touché.

“The other guy in your dream— I’m sure you can think of something more specific than white, blonde, and tall.” Nico raises his own eyebrows right back. 

Jakobe has the decency to look embarrassed, at least. “He had glasses, I think? A tattoo on his arm.” A blush rakes across Jakobe’s dark skin. It’s jarring to see on someone so put together. It doesn’t match the square of his shoulders or the snarl on his face. “I don’t know! He was shirtless, I was looking. I didn’t think I was going to have to memorize what a random hot guy looked like for a pop-quiz from some emo kid!”

Nico feels so many emotions at the same time. The biggest one is the overwhelming sadness he feels at the mere thought of Jason. The glasses and the tattoo— it’s obvious. It had to have been him. The next is a strange undercurrent of hope, of curiosity. Jason is dead. What is he doing in the prophetic dreams of random demigods in Oklahoma? Although, Jakobe isn’t so random. He knows Piper, and he’s the legacy child of the goddess of crossroads . There has to be something there about big decisions or choices to be made. If Annabeth were in on the conversation Nico is sure she’d have already figured out the correlation by now. The last feeling Nico feels is anger. The simplest emotion. 

He goes with that one.

Nico rounds on the other demigod. “Call me kid one more time—“ The ground doesn’t shake. No cracks split before him. There are no skeleton hands or zombie groans. Because there doesn’t need to be. Nico knows Jakobe can feel the anger radiating off of him. It’s easy here. There are so many restless souls, roaming and aimless. It takes nothing to summon their collective bitterness into his voice. He can tell they aren’t bound to Hades, they were destined for somewhere less, but that’s no matter. They’re eager to be angry with Nico. To hiss with the force of hundreds of their people. Forced away, lost, forever roaming and looking for what they were promised.

“I—“ Jakobe stammers, taking a large step back from the son of Hades.

“Also, Piper and I don’t argue . And that hot guy you saw was my best friend, Piper’s boyf— best friend, Jason. And he’s dead. So unless you’re suggesting he’s miraculously alive somehow, which he’s not, because I can feel that he’s dead, then what you saw wasn’t real.”

There’s a clatter to Nico’s left, startling them both. They glance away to see what happened, worried someone is listening in. Thankfully, none of their friends are looking their way, preoccupied with tacking sticky-notes to every available surface of the hallway. 

It serves to break Nico’s concentration, the anger falling out of him as fast as it came. Nico deflates like a Happy Birthday balloon stabbed by a stray dagger. (Happens more often than you’d think.)

He takes a long, deep breath. Counts to seven. Breathes out again. 

“Listen. I swore I wouldn’t bring Jason back. I even told Apollo I wouldn’t. Jason sacrificed himself, and I’m trying really hard to respect that. And unless I have any new siblings I haven’t heard about, I’m Jason’s only ticket back to the living. So, I don’t know what you saw, but it can’t be real.” Nico’s voice cracks at the end. He shoves the hope that threatens to bubble up back down into the pits of his stomach where it came from. He can’t afford to have hope right now. 

“So you’re a child of Hades, then?” Jakobe eyes him warily. 

Nico only gestures to himself. Fucking duh . 

“Nico! Jakobe! Get your anti-social butts over here and help us!” Piper shouts from her spot, still on the floor. It’s no charmspeak command, but it might as well be with how eagerly Jakobe speed walks away from Nico.

Stupid cheerleader in his stupid pants. 

Nico, far less eager and stewing in his emotional turmoil, joins Will on the far side of the hallway. He has to pick his way along the wall, carefully sticking to the shadows and praying none of their friends stop him. 

“You okay?” Will stops what he’s doing when he hears Nico behind him, looking over his shoulder, yellow sticky note hovering in midair. Will is diligently placing sticky-notes in perfectly straight lines next to Percy, whose strategy is slapping it on there and hoping it sticks. Nothing could be more representative of the difference between the two of them. 

Nico shuffles his feet, pulls on the end of his shirt. 

“I’m fine,” he lies. But the lie isn’t for Will, he’ll see right through it. The lie is for Percy, who is watching them with concern. It works, and Percy returns to throwing sticky notes at the wall. Nico leans his forehead against the backside of Will’s shoulder, voice pitched as quiet as it can go when he says, “Can we talk later?”

Will drops his voice down to a matching whisper, pressing his lips to the top of Nico’s head, body twisted to reach. “Does Jakobe need to mysteriously die with no body as evidence?” 

Nico chuckles. Will has got to stop listening to those true crime podcasts on the magic iPod.

“No. Not yet, anyways.” Nico pulls back to show Will his tiny smile. To prove Will succeeded in making him feel better. He’ll be okay for now. 

“If you say so.” Will smiles, eyes crinkling at the edges. “Hold on—” He takes one of the sticky notes in his hand and pulls a pen from one of his many cargo pants pockets. He scribbles something Nico can’t see, yanks it off the pad, and sticks it to Nico’s forehead. 

“Hey!” Nico clambers to remove it, exasperated as Will giggles at him. “Oh…” 

Nico’s eyes water. It’s stupid. In Will’s near-indecipherable hand-writing the words cutie pie are written at the top, and arrow pointing down underneath it. Nico shakes his head, cheeks warm. “You’re such a sap.” The words lose their bite with how much emotion coats Nico’s voice. 

“Yeah, I know.” Will’s voice is fond as he takes the note delicately out of Nico’s open palms. With sure hands, he folds it neatly, and pushes it into the front pocket of Nico’s jeans. 

The side door into the hallway rattles. 

“Oh, fuck, ” Piper yells. They listen in horror as keys clink together, the handle turns— “Time to leave!” And this time, she is using charmspeak. It kicks all of them into gear, scrambling for the main exit just out of view.

Sticky notes go flying, and Nico has milliseconds to be impressed by the sheer amount of wall they managed to cover in such a short time. A stern adult voice calls out as they sprint for it, hollering something Nico can’t decipher over the ringing in his ears. Percy hoots with laughter, hand in hand with Leo, pulling the shorter boy along. All of their friends wear matching wild grins, stampeding at full speed down the tile hallway. Even Calypso is cracking a smile. 

They burst out of the main entrance, double-wide glass doors opening into the late-afternoon sun. They’re all still laughing, except for Jakobe. Who has the presence of mind to hold his hand up to the security camera pointing directly at them and cloud its view with the Mist. 

They jog out of the front gate, cross the parking lot into the surrounding trees, and tuck themselves into the sparse forest. The adult looking for them, who Nico presumes is some underpaid school admin, only peaks out of the front entrance before giving up, and turns their search back inwards. 

“Well, it was lovely meeting everybody.” Nico can’t tell if Jakobe’s smile is genuine or not. It’s just on the wrong side of sharp. He very pointedly does not look at Nico. “Piper, darling, if you need me— Don’t!” And off he goes, before any of them can say a word back. 

They watch him walk away, catching their breath and calming down from their run with the giggles. Percy’s stomach growls, loud .

“I guess that’s as good of a reason as any to get out of here,” Piper laughs to herself. “I’d ask where everyone wants to go for dinner, but the options are… limited. Especially since we didn’t bring my car.” 

“I can fix that.” Nico holds his fingers up to his mouth, and whistles.

The whistle is completely unnecessary. Nico only does it to bask in the confused looks on his friends faces. 

“Nico, what the fu—” Leo is cut off by the sound of limousine tires coming to a screeching halt. In the driver’s seat is the one and only Julius-Albert, Nico’s undead chauffeur. 

“No way! You still have this guy?” Percy bounds up to the window, waving at the zombie inside. He doesn’t react, of course.

“Everybody, meet Julius-Albert. My father’s first gift to me when he decided I should experience the mortal world. A French race-car driver chauffeur with a limousine. Because that’s totally normal.” Nico opens the door to the limo, gesturing his friends inside.

“I take back what I said. Percy’s life isn’t crazy, your life is crazy,” Piper climbs in first, examining the interior with wonder. Surely she’s been in a limo before, right? Or did her dad prefer more subtle modes of transportation? Hades does not know the word subtle. 

They pile inside, crowding the dark interior. 

“No mini-bar?” Leo complains as he forces his way in last. 

“My deepest apologies. I’ll get that fixed right away,” Nico drawls, throwing Leo one of his classic dead-eyed stares. 

It’s definitely not the fanciest or most high-tech of limos. It’s about as somber as a limo gets, the sides taken up entirely by black leather couches, the floor and ceiling lined in red suede. A small mahogany table sits in the center. Nico always hated the whole thing, so he never thought to whine to his father that there’s no disco ball or mini-bar or flashing lights. 

There are speakers, though. Nico definitely puts those to good use.

Julius-Albert lets out a long groan and gives them a pointed look in the rear-view mirror. 

“Well, where too?” Nico asks. “He’s getting antsy.”

“Have you ever been to Olive Garden, Nico?” From the sharpness of Piper’s grin, Nico gets the feeling she’s not talking about a garden for growing olives. And that he should be very, very afraid.

Chapter Text

“What did you want to talk about?” 

Will’s face glows in the fluorescent white lights. They’re sitting on the concrete slab that serves as the back porch, backs resting against the lumpy wood exterior of Piper’s house. Nico’s definitely going to have some splinters after this. 

When they returned from dinner, the demigods crowded themselves into Piper’s room. Will and Nico joined for a while, enjoying small talk and playing random card games, but Nico needed a break. So outside they went. 

Because where Nico goes, Will follows.

“What if I said I was upset that everyone made me eat at Olive Garden?” Nico attempts a joke, a smile cracking through his down mood. 

“Aw c’mon! But when you’re there, you’re family!” Will laughs, unbridled. Gods, he could ask Nico to steal the moon and he would. (Sorry, Artemis. Maybe then they’d be even. A loss for a loss.)

“I can’t believe the breadsticks were vegan. How . What witchcraft lets them be that buttery and also vegan ?” Nico leans against Will, chuckling. 

The trees rustle in the early Fall wind. In Oklahoma, the October air borders on cold at night— brisk, but not uncomfortable. Nico reaches for rings to twist that he didn’t wear today. He can’t get his hands to his pockets to fiddle with his coin in this position, either. The thing he longs for glints in the porchlight around Will’s neck. Will catches him staring and offers his hand as a replacement, palm up.

Nico takes it with a small, bitter smile, dragging blunt nails soft across calloused bumps. Not nearly as rough as his own hands. Or scarred. Sword-fighting from the age of 10 will do that to you. Will only picks up a sword when the Apollo cabin’s scheduled time in the arena requires him to. Even then, he manages to get out of it nine times out of ten. His hands are that of a different kind of warrior. The gentle hands of a field medic, precise and sturdy, decorated with small nicks from wayward needles and removing sharp objects.

“I don’t know where to start…” Nico admits, still tracing the lines of Will’s palm. He wonders if palm reading falls under Apollo’s domain and if it holds any validity. If so, what does Will’s say? What does his own say? Do the crisscrossing creases of their palms align, destined to be soulmates here, too? 

Will wraps his long fingers around Nico’s and squeezes, getting his attention. “Order of importance, maybe? Start light and then go from there. It’ll make it easier to talk.” 

Right. That sounds good. 

“I talked to Percy last night. While I was in the shower.” Nico cringes at his own phrasing. Gods, that was so embarrassing. Well, the actual conversation with Percy wasn’t all that bad. The crushing post-conversation clarity was, though. 

“While you were in the shower?” Will laughs, shoulders shaking where they’re leaning against one another. “Should I be worried?” It’s one of Will’s favorite jokes, that he’s going to lose Nico to Percy. Mostly because he gets a kick out of how absurd Nico finds the idea.

“Shut up.” Nico rolls his eyes, shifting to look Will in the eyes. He debates for a second how much he’s going to tell Will. In the end, he decides he’s too tired to give a play by play of their conversation. Especially since there are other topics Nico needs to get to. A summary will have to do. 

“Long story short, he apologized for coming out, which was super weird—” Will laughs in agreement. “And I got to tell him about that thing we talked about. How I don’t like how he and Annabeth make me feel, sometimes.” 

Will takes in a sharp breath, holding it for fear of how the conversation ended. Nico gives him a smile, so Will knows he can breathe easy. 

“He said he’d try to do better. And that he’d tell Annabeth.” Nico sighs, slumping further against the wall. “We’ll see if it works.”

“Oh, Nico, that’s—” Will gives him a wide, proud smile. “I’m so happy that it went well.” 

“Me too,” Nico agrees, eyes watery. Until he remembers—

“And he told me he had a crush on Luke when he first got to camp!”

That gets Will’s full attention. His mouth drops open, looking a whole lot like how Nico felt when he first heard the news. “Oh no .” Will can’t hold in his laughter. “That’s so bad!” 

“That’s what I said!” Nico’s laughing with him. He’s glad Will suggested starting with this first. He needed a little levity. Something to give him strength before moving on to heavier topics. To Jason . 

They come down from their laughter, and Nico can tell Will is hesitating. He wants to ask Nico to continue with the next thing, but he doesn’t want to push. So Nico offers it up himself, instead. 

“The other thing was that, uh…” Nico picks at the stray threads of his jeans so he doesn’t have to look Will in the eyes. “I saw your dad in my dreams last night,” Nico says. The absurdity of that sentence is not lost on him. Again, out of demigod context, a super creepy thing to say to someone. 

He explains his dream in detail to Will. Half-Blood Hill, Lester, the setting sun, Jason’s ghost . Nico still remembers what Apollo said. “Settling in, down there?” 

“Huh. I mean, we knew Lester saw Jason after his death, right? In his dreams?” Will asks. Nico’s getting sick of all this dream talk. How come everything happens to demigods while they’re asleep?

“Yeah… I didn’t think too much of it. Until what Jakobe told me.” Nico sighs, doing his best rendition of becoming one with the wall without using his shadow magic. He runs bony fingers through his tangled hair— which reminds him again that he needs to cut it. It’s just one big knot at the bottom now. Will’s preference for his long hair is slowly being outweighed by his hatred for brushing the damn thing.

“I thought I saw you two talking before you came stalking back to the group all doom and gloom.” Will presses a smile into the top of Nico’s head, putting an arm around his slight frame so he can tug Nico into sinking against him instead of the wall. Far more comfortable. Nico lets out a big breath. 

“He, uh, also had a dream, apparently. A while back. All he could remember was that Piper and I were arguing about something and Jason was there , alive , standing between us. I know it could be metaphorical or whatever but— that definitely hasn’t happened before. So it’s either some weird not-literal prophecy thing, or it’s the future. And— and—” Nico can’t finish the sentence. 

Jason flashes in his mind’s eye. 

He sees Jason waving him down from across the commons at Camp Half-Blood. He sees Jason’s bright eyes crinkle as he smiles, warning Nico not to get into too much trouble until he gets back from school. He sees Jason laying on his back in the green grass, next to Percy, already planning all the things Jason is going to show him in New Rome when he goes off to college. 

Nico’s throat closes up on him, hiccupping on the next breath. 

Why? Why ? What did Jason and Piper do to deserve that prophecy? Why didn’t Jason tell her? Tell them? They could have pre-planned Nico bringing him back from the dead. Jason could have begged Hades to give him the Greek afterlife and Nico would have waited there, at the Underworld’s not-so pearly gates, to drag Jason back where he belongs. Here. With them. With his friends. 

Out of the corner of Nico’s watery eyes, a black mass of wriggling shadows bounces out from the forest. Oh, great. He’s so worked up that his cocoa puffs are here. “Not now,” Nico groans around his tears, burying his snotty nose into Will’s shoulder. 

Will squeezes Nico tight, his voice a whisper when he speaks. “Hey, take a deep breath. Where are the big emotions coming from?” He swipes a thumb across Nico’s cheek, clearing it of the salty trail. 

“It’s— It’s not fair !” The voice that leaves Nico’s mouth isn’t his own. Well, it is his, but much younger . He’s looking right at the cacodemon, and knows exactly which memory it is. Bianca .

Didn’t he already work this out? Didn’t he get his closure with Bianca in Tartarus? Didn’t he just talk to Percy about how it wasn’t his fault? 

What is wrong with Nico? Why can’t he let. It. Go?

Will opens his mouth to soothe Nico, but Nico beats him to it with his own, harsher words. 

“Am I asking too much? That the people I care about aren’t doomed to leave me?” Nico's voice is raspy with tears, throat dry and hands shaking against Will’s. 

“I’m still here,” Will whispers. 

“For now,” Nico snaps. And immediately regrets it. He winces at his own words, horrified that he would even speak that into existence. His darkest thoughts. His deepest fears. 

That everyone will abandon him, in the end. And he’ll be left in the wake, cursed to live on without them. Half-alive. How much grief can one person take?

“I didn’t—” Nico tries to correct himself, pulls back to look Will in the eyes and insist he didn’t mean it, but Will shushes him.  

“I understand. It’s okay to have fears, Nico.” Will puts both of his hands on Nico’s shoulders, holding him steady. Nico takes a shaky breath. In. Out. In. Out. 

His breathing doesn’t improve, his heart rate ticks higher. The world starts to close in around him. 

He wants to warn Will, but he’s gone blurry in Nico’s vision. Out of focus. The world warps beneath him, his stomach lurches with a fall that never comes. Breathe— Nico can’t breathe. Except… he can. His chest and stomach expand rapidly back and forth as he sucks in breaths that don’t feel like they’re carrying oxygen. 

A voice calls in Nico’s head. Demanding. Black hair and blue eyes crouched over Nico in worry. A memory— the last time this happened to Nico so bad that he couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. 

He remembers Percy asking him to name five blue things he can see.

The exercise Percy’s mom taught him to help deal with his nightmares. The exercise he shared with Nico, when no one else could reach him from the prison of his own head.

Nico draws in a labored breath. 

One: Will’s eyes. A soft floral blue, waving in his vision. Cornflower, Will always insists. Warm. Inviting. Not like the roiling sea-blue of Percy’s eyes or the regal sky-blue of Jason’s— don’t think about Jason. 

Two: The bead on Will’s camp necklace representing the Battle of Manhattan. Decorated with the tiny gold names of all the demigods they lost. So many lost.

Three: Will brought his plate of snacks out with him. A half-eaten blue chocolate chip cookie waits to be remembered. Percy baked them to kill time when they got back from dinner. They taste exactly like his mother’s.

Four: There’s a little plastic blue watering can sitting on the far side of the porch, no plants or garden in sight. The edges are white with time and sun-exposure.

Five: Nico’s running out of things. The world has come back into sharp clarity, at least. He counts the night sky as blue. Stars spread out above them, brighter than Nico ever sees in New York. 

Deep breaths. Nico tries again. 

In. Out. In. Out. The ringing in his ears dissipates. His chest feels lighter, his head clearer. The anxiety still rages in his gut and the panic sits at the back of his throat, but he can hear and see again. 

“Sorry—” he tries, croaking on the words.

“Don’t you dare finish that apology, di Angelo,” Will chuckles, but the sound is so sad Nico whips his head up to look. Will is crying, too.

Will slides his hands from Nico’s shoulders to his biceps, squeezing. His hands glow a faint yellow. Warmth flows from Will’s fingers into Nico’s body— healing. Was he doing that the whole time? Nico’s heart rate slows back to normal, muscles he didn’t know were clenched relax. 

“Better?” Will asks. Nico nods. “Are you okay?”

Nico opens his mouth to say yes. Shuts it. Shakes his head no, instead. 

Nico isn’t sure which one of them moves first. Next thing Nico knows he’s crawling into Will’s open arms, head resting on Will’s thighs and body curled into the fetal position. 

“If you tried to die on me, I’d bring you back whether you wanted it or not.” Nico admits to the cracks in the concrete porch. 

“I know.” Will’s smile is audible. “You have my full permission to drag me kicking and screaming back to the living.” 

“Good,” Nico huffs. He swipes at his tears and runny nose, sacrificing the cleanliness of his arm to rid the sticky feeling from his face. 

“I love you,” Nico says, because he can. 

“I love you, too,” Will replies. The half-eaten blue cookie from earlier slides into his vision, Will offering it up to him. The paper plate might as well be a silver platter. 

“Thanks,” Nico croaks. He takes the chocolate chip cookie and nibbles on the edges. Percy really did nail his mom’s recipe. Nico misses Sally Jackson. 

“Can I ask you something?” Will pets a hand through Nico’s hair. “You can say no, if you’re not ready to keep talking.” 

“Depends on the question.” Nico goes for sarcastic but it falls flat. 

“Do you regret promising not to bring Jason back?”

Ah.

Nico’s hesitation is enough. 

“Nico, it’s okay if—”

“It’s not that! Well… it is kind of that.” Nico cuts Will off. “It’s— If it were anyone else, I’d know they’d want me to bring them back. Percy doesn’t care about prophecies or destiny or following the rules. Annabeth… well, Percy would make me bring her back. Leo already cheated death once. Hazel’s not even supposed to be alive in the first place. And you don’t get a choice.” Nico breathes heavily. “Jason… Jason always played by the gods’ rules. He took a lot of pride in being a demigod the way you’re supposed to be a demigod. He sacrificed himself. He made that choice. And I can feel that he went somewhere good, somewhere he’s happy. Even if I did find him and bring him back, I’m not sure he wouldn’t be upset with me for it.”

Nico traces a frowny face into the dirt scattered across the back porch.

Will looks at Nico like he wants to say he’s wrong, but can’t. Nico’s word choice might not be perfect. Nico can’t imagine Jason truly being upset with him, yelling at him or arguing with him. But he can imagine the disappointment on Jason’s face. The guilt Nico would feel for being selfish. The fissure it would cause between them.

Would it be worth Jason being alive if he hated it? If he didn’t ask for it? If it drove Jason away from all of them? If he lost his friends in the process?

“But you keep thinking about it.”

“But I keep thinking about it,” Nico agrees, soft and broken. “It’s been seven months and I keep thinking about it, because the stupid universe keeps reminding me! What else am I supposed to make of these weird dreams? Jakobe’s a legacy of Hecate . What if I’m at some important cross-road or decision that I’m not seeing.” It dawns on Nico as he’s saying it. He reckons that’s exactly why Jakobe dreamed of him, Piper, and Jason. But what’s coming? What choice could there possibly be for Nico to make? 

…If it’s not bringing Jason back from the dead? 

“You could ask the others,” Will says, quiet, like he already knows Nico won’t like the suggestion. And he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to give Piper false hope. He doesn’t want to spur Percy into premature action. He doesn’t want Annabeth to talk him into or out of it. He doesn’t want to see the pain in Leo’s eyes when they scratch the idea completely. 

“No—”

“Hear me out!” Will presses on. “At the very least, you should tell Annabeth about your and Jakobe’s dreams. She’s the best shot we have at understanding them.” 

“I’ll… I’ll think about it,” Nico concedes. He’s tired and upset and he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. He can feel his emotions fraying at the ends.

Will nods. The cocoa puff, blurry around the edges, bounces into Nico’s lap. It curls there, purring like a cat. Nico pets at its roiling shadows. He can feel the prickling edges of his own crashing anger underneath his fingertips, the edges of the memory flickering in his mind. Alone, afraid, the ground in front of the dining hall splitting beneath his feet. 

Barely eleven. His sister dead, Percy’s promise broken. Abandoned. Lost.

Will’s voice breaks through the haze. “Just— Promise me you won’t try and handle it by yourself? If something comes up and you have to make a choice or go on a quest or do something you don’t want to do… Don’t bear that burden alone, okay?” Like Jason did, goes unspoken between them. Because look where that got him. 

It’s a fair request. Nico’s not exactly known for relying on others, always shouldering problems that aren’t his to save others the time. And yet, he was upset when Jason did that exact thing. Maybe because Jason was always the one harping on Nico for his tendency to bottle up and close off. Jason begged Nico over and over again to trust him, to come to him, to tell him when something was wrong. 

Hypocrite .

“I mean, I already told you about it, didn’t I?” Nico says, instead of making that promise. And it’s true. He was worried about telling people about it so he told Will . He’s here, in Will’s arms, relying on him to pick up Nico’s broken pieces, to tell Nico he’s not crazy. 

“You did,” Will says, eyes wide with wonder like he’s only now realizing it. He squeezes Nico in his arms, reaches a hand around to pat the cocoa puff squirming in Nico’s lap. 

Nico understands Will’s worry. He’s made a lot of progress, especially since Tartarus, but old habits die hard. And Will is allowed his own irrational fears. He rarely shows them, but Nico knows what to look for. Will’s fear of the unknown. Will’s constant worry that he’ll miss any chance to help, to save. Twice now he’s been left out of saving his siblings. First with Lee and Mitchell, then with Kayla and Austin. Nico is positive losing Kayla and Austin would have been the last straw for Will. If Meg and Apollo hadn’t brought them back in one piece… 

Nico doesn’t want to think about that , either. 

“Can we go back now?” Nico asks. The anxiety won’t stop vibrating under his skin. All he wants is to sit in silence and listen to the happy voices of his friends. Pretend his thoughts don’t exist for a little while. 

“Of course.” Will smiles down at him. Nico goes a little cross-eyed trying to look upside down at Will’s face. There’s a second of deliberation, a crease forming between Will’s eyebrows, before he caves and leans down to press a kiss to Nico’s nose. The grin on Will’s face when he pulls back is goofy with adoration. 

“You’re an idiot,” Nico gripes, wiping the wet left behind from the kiss from his nose, but he’s also smiling. Stupid Will and his stupid kisses that always make Nico feel better.

“Yeah, but I’m your idiot!” Will starts to get up, lifting Nico from his lap, but Nico is frozen in place. 

Yours . No one has ever been his before. 

Not Bianca— She gave up being his big sister to be a huntress. And then left him for good by getting herself killed.

Not Percy— As much as Nico would have liked that in his worst moments. In his wildest dreams.

Not Jason— He was Piper’s. And Juno’s. And Jupiter’s. And the Legion’s. Nico isn’t sure Jason even belonged to himself . 

“…Are you sure you’re ready to go back?” Will is crouching over Nico, who let himself lay on the cold concrete in absence of Will’s lap, body unwilling to move as he processes this new information. 

“Huh? Oh— uh. Yeah.” Nico makes a fool of himself scrambling to stand. He’s sure he’s red in the face, and his eyes go watery again. Gods , when did he become such a cry baby? 

Will raises an eyebrow at him, a soft smile on his golden face. 

“If you say so,” he giggles. He offers his elbow out to Nico, who hooks his own through it without his usual token protests.

Nico prepares to take a step towards the backdoor, but Will pauses. Something clearly still left on his mind.

“Can I ask you something else? Something not serious?” A blush blooms across Will’s face, barely visible in the night. What gives it away is that he starts to glow. Faint, but there. Nico ducks his head, cheeks still warm. 

“I mean… yeah, sure.” 

“Was today your first time seeing a boy in a skirt?”

Nico’s eyes snap wide and he whips his head around to Will to start vehemently apologizing for even looking at the two male Empousai— oh. Will’s expression doesn’t hold any anger. Or jealousy. He’s smiling, awkward and red-faced, but he’s smiling. And the look in his eyes is mischievous . 

“Um—” Nico swallows, throat thick. “Yeah? I didn’t— Can—” Nico looks everywhere but Will, eyes darting across the dark lawn. 

“I wasn’t kidding or poking fun at you when I said you’d look good in it.” The sheer casualty with which Will says it startles Nico into looking at him again. He’s gone completely flush and is still glowing bright, his smile taking on a hint of embarrassment as he keeps talking. “I didn’t think about it, when I said it, that that would be new to you. But it’s normal. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it at camp! Mitchell used to rock them all the time. He got bored of it, I guess. Plus, that has to be kind of impractical when we’re at war, you know?” Will rambles on, only managing to look Nico in the eyes for half of it. Nico blinks back, eyes wide.

Will giggles, looking at Nico again to brush a stray piece of black hair back into place, smoothing his knuckles across Nico’s cheek as it retreats. Nico can only stare in stunned awe. 

“So, uh, if that’s something you wanted—?” Will trails off, suddenly unsure of himself. Nico tries to respond, but only manages to make a non-committal squeaking noise and shrug his shoulders out of time. He’s still fighting the war in his head over being okay with thinking Will looks cute in cargo shorts. Thinking about himself , in— yeah no . Not ready.

Will laughs and nods, unperturbed by Nico’s response. “Got it.” He says, giggling, and moves his grip from Nico’s arm to his hand to tug Nico back inside.

Something blooms in Nico’s chest, taking the place of all the emotions he let loose into Will’s open heart. A smile starts to break across Nico’s expression. It widens and widens until Nico can tell his mouth is lopsided and he looks silly with it. When they stumble back to Piper’s bedroom, and their friends turn with matching big smiles on their faces to greet them, Nico can’t find it in himself to care. 

Inside Piper’s room, there are no overhead lights on. Instead, it’s alight with salt lamps and fairy lights. Brightly colored beads hang as drapes over Piper’s closet where a door should be. It’s colorful and busy, yet soft and welcoming. It suits Piper perfectly. 

“We were just about to start playing poker! You want in?” Annabeth holds up the deck of cards that she was shuffling. She’s lounging in one of Piper’s many beanbags, fighting for custody over a bag of pretzels with Percy while also trying to keep hold of the cards. 

“Only if it’s Texas Hold-em!” Will drags Nico over to their circle of friends and plops them down on Piper’s rug, which looks like it could be handmade, matching the bold patterns and colors on the pillows in their living room. 

“I’ll play if everyone’s ready to lose.” Nico’s voice is still raspy from crying and the emotional whiplash, but thankfully no one points it out. It feels good to get a laugh out of everyone. 

Their joy doesn’t last long. Nico does, in fact, kick everyone’s ass. Multiple times. Until Leo begs him, literally on his hands and knees, to sit the next game out and Nico laughs so hard he nearly cries.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Nico has the same dream again that night. The sun sets, Lester and Jason side by side, but neither of them speak this time. Silence, until Nico gasps himself awake. He only got to see the back of Jason’s head. 

It’s for the best. Seeing his face, his tiny smile, was a special kind of torture. 

Nico tells Will immediately, as promised, and it puts a weird mood over their morning. It doesn’t ruin it, but something bitter sits right over the top, until the others wake up enough to trickle out into the living room one by one. 

The day passes much the same. They play a board game, Will and Percy go for a late morning jog, they call Julius-Albert to take them to lunch, and come back full and sleepy. All with a slight air of unease.

After lunch, Annabeth announces that she has some assignments that need doing for her university classes (and so does Percy) so they settle into the living room space for some communal work time. Leo and Calypso, however, dart to the guest room to take a nap the second the idea of a break is suggested— strange . 

In the living room, the couch is pushed back into its original form, Nico and Will’s bedding sitting folded neatly on the coffee table. With plenty of space to sit, Percy and Annabeth make themselves at home on the floor. Because why would they take the perfectly good couch? That would be too obvious. From their suitcases they pull an endless supply of notebooks and textbooks and suddenly college does not look like something Nico ever wants to do.

Piper, like a normal person, gets comfortable on the couch. She picks a corner to sit cross-legged and unzips the bag she brought out of her room. Nico assumes it’ll also contain dreaded homework, but she starts pulling out yarn .

“Yarn?” Nico asks her, peering inside. It’s all thick and fluffy, a roll of every color in existence.

“Annabeth has been teaching me to crochet over Iris Message!” Piper holds up her latest creation with pride. A tiny orange and pink bumble bee, complete with plastic heart eyes and floppy white wings. “I’m no daughter of Athena, but it’s nice to have something to do. And it reminds me of weaving with my grandmother.” 

Piper places the little hand-made stuffed animal in Nico’s waiting palms. He doesn’t get a chance to look at it fully before Will is bounding over to get a better view. 

“Oh my gods, it’s so cute!” Will leans in, running a finger along the craftsmanship. 

“You might be better at crocheting than me at this point!” Annabeth looks up from her homework to smile at Piper. 

“Don’t say that! Your mom will turn me into a spider or something if she hears you!” Piper mocks horror, looking around in fear and pressing a finger to her lips. Annabeth makes a disgusted noise and shudders at the mere thought of spiders. Piper laughs at her friend. 

Even now, happy and relaxed, it’s clear Piper hasn’t been sleeping well for the better part of half a year since Jason died. The dark bags under her eyes are permanent fissures, her dark brown hair longer than Nico has ever seen it. She’s wearing it down today, with nowhere to be, and keeps braiding tiny little sections with nervous fingers only to undo them. 

Yet her whole face seems to brighten when she looks at Annabeth, smile finally reaching her eyes.

Piper selects her first large ball of yarn and sets to it with a pair of hooks, a small circular mass already halfway crocheted at one end. 

“What’s this one going to be?” Nico asks, curiosity winning over.

“A wolf! I paid for the tutorial, so here’s to hoping I can finally get it right. I’ve restarted this one four times now.” Piper sighs, curling up and setting to work, tongue bit between her teeth in concentration. The fur color she’s chosen is a pale yellow. The two younger boys watch her loop and pull and loop and pull with elegant speed.

“Do you take commissions?” Will asks, plopping down on the couch next to her. Piper looks up in surprise. 

“I mean… I don’t see why not! I haven’t made anything for anyone other than myself, yet,” she says. Her hands keep moving as she talks. 

Will nods, serious, fingers rubbing at his chin. Seems like he has lots to think about.

Nico leaves them to it, wandering over to Will’s car-activity backpack. Surely there’s something in here to do. Nico may be the King of Naps, but he’s not feeling it right now. They’ve barely done anything all day. Nico likes taking naps when he feels like he’s earned it— completed a daunting task or attended an activity he hates. The glorious feeling of flopping face first into bed after doing something utterly exhausting is unbeatable. Nico doesn’t want to disgrace that with taking a nap for no reason.

The sound of the backpack zipper sets Will off like a sleeper agent, scrambling across the length of the couch to lean over the edge and watch Nico. “Whatcha looking for?” He asks, smiling wide. His golden hair sticks in every direction, and Nico has to resist the urge to pat the top of his head like he’s a golden retriever. 

“Uhhh— I’m not really sure. Just bored,” Nico admits. 

Will slides over the side of the couch head-first in a move that cannot be safe, catching himself with his hands and rolling over to crouch besides Nico. “I may or may not have snuck something in here that you might like.” Will wiggles his eyebrows in a decidedly Apollo-like move, and Nico instantly hates it. His face must say so, because Will laughs at his expression, muttering apologies under his breath as he takes over rummaging through the backpack. 

Will finds what he’s looking for, arm pausing its movement as Will starts to sing the Zelda soundtrack— the little jingle you get when you open up a treasure chest. Right at the end, he whips out two decks of cards, each rubber banded together. He holds them high in the air, presenting them like Link would. The whole display, including Will’s terrible off-tune singing, makes Nico giggle. What a nerd. 

Until he realizes what it is Will has in his hands. And Nico stops laughing. 

“Hey! Those are my Mythomagic decks! How did you find those to pack them?” Nico asks, bewildered. He’s pretty sure he put those in his dresser, alongside his prized miniatures. Which all go under his socks. So no one finds them. Ever. 

“You told me where they were, silly. I asked you if I could bring them and you said yes! You were in the room when I grabbed them, but I’m pretty sure you weren’t listening to me, like, at all when you agreed to it. It was early in the morning.” Will grins like a maniac. “Plus, you promised to play with me when we got back from— uh— you know , and we haven’t yet!”

“You went through my sock drawer?” Nico’s expression is flat. That’s weird, right? Your significant annoyance digging through your socks for your personal belongings has to breach some unspoken rule Nico doesn’t know. Kayla and Austin would definitely call that a red flag. (They love to tell Will his red flags, but they won’t tell Nico what his are when he asks, for some reason.) 

Nico can’t find it in himself to be bothered by it when playing Mythomagic sounds like exactly what he wants to do right now. And Nico does tend to very flippantly say yes to whatever Will asks when he’s half-asleep or done dealing with people for the day. He can picture himself waving a dismissive hand towards his sock drawer and letting Will dig through it without question, too busy smothering himself with a pillow until he finally falls back asleep to care. 

“I dug through your sock drawer with your permission ! And you were in the room!” Will declares. “I think you’re just afraid you’re going to lose.” Will sticks his tongue out. 

“Yeah right, Solace.” Nico rolls his eyes. “Well then, if you think you’re ready to take me on, young padawan…” Will cackles with joy at Nico’s Star Wars reference, and they make their way back to the couch to play. It’s not ideal, lumpy and not enough horizontal space to fit a proper playing field laid out neatly how Nico prefers, but it’ll do. Plus, they don’t have any minis, so the layout isn’t important. Which is good. If Will touched the minis Nico is sure he would have flipped. The decks are just paper, but his little collection of miniatures is the only thing he has left from his life in Italy— from Bianca. 

Will knows that. And he knows specifically about what the Hades and Ares figurines mean to him. Nico is confident that when they return the tiny statues will be exactly as Nico left them, untouched. Will would never move them. 

Nico tells himself he’s going to enjoy this and not look to see if Annabeth and Percy are watching him and Will play. Mythomagic is a subject the couple prefers to avoid, lest they remind Nico of Bianca. But, nowadays, Nico associates it more with Frank and Camp Half-Blood more than anything else. He used to play with other kids at camp, during his first short stay, and he’s played with a few very dedicated campers this time around. It feels nice to enjoy his little obsession again. 

Nico immediately breaks his own rule, and looks right at Percy as they look through their decks. Only because he can feel the other boy’s eyes boring into the back of his skull. 

And he’s right. Percy is looking right at him. His expression is unreadable, mouth slightly open. Nico raises a sharp eyebrow, channeling as much “ Can I help you?” e nergy into the look as he can muster. Percy only laughs and shakes his head, like he’s trying to clear his brain of the need to stare, and goes back to his homework. It only lasts for a second before Percy’s looking back up again right at Nico. 

“What? Do you want in on the next round?” Nico mocks. He’s not letting Percy ruin this for him. Not after their talk the other night. And Will has been begging him to play for ages . The last thing Nico wants right now is to have an emotional shutdown and have to reset before playing. 

“Absolutely not. I fucking suck at Mythomagic. Grover and I used to play it in middle school but I never got the hang of it,” Percy shrugs, as if he’s not dropping new information on Nico that shatters his world view a little bit. How does Percy keep doing that? “I was just thinking that New Rome University has a Mythomagic League. I was wondering if you’d enjoy that.”

At that, Annabeth looks up from her own homework. “It does?” She asks. Percy knowing something Annabeth doesn’t know? Wild. 

“Yeah! Some guys on our dorm floor tried to talk me into joining. They practice every Thursday night and do tournaments across the country. But the swim team is more than enough to keep me busy,” Percy laughs. “I still can’t believe they let me compete knowing I have a magical advantage. Like, it’s one thing to be a freak of nature to mortals, but to know I’m a son of Poseidon and make other students try and beat me? Cruel and unusual.”  Percy turns back to his textbook, faking flipping through it as he talks. Probably to keep Annabeth off his ass about distracting her. Everyone knows she loves it when he does, though. It’s merely to keep up appearances. 

“That is pretty funny,” Piper stops her crocheting to chat. Her and Percy get into a long conversation about all the different clubs at New Rome University, but Nico isn’t listening. He’s too busy picturing attending NRU with Will, playing Mythomagic in a large hall every Thursday night with people who might actually be worth the challenge. But what would he even study? Nico hasn’t even made it to middle school. He should probably start there…

“Ready?” Will holds up his borrowed deck. 

Oh, that’s right. He’s in the middle of something. “Bring it on.” 

Nico beats Will three times in a row, much to his delight and Will’s suffering. They even switch decks, Will insisting it’s because Nico chose the better deck for himself. 

He didn’t. Nico beats him even faster with the other deck. 

“Playing against Nico was a mistake,” Percy says, patting Will on the back. He abandoned his homework twenty minutes ago, complaining of a headache. A lie Annabeth clearly did not buy, but didn’t call him out on either. She’s been trying to write an essay by hand in a notebook for the last two hours, and looks about ready to fake her own death to get out of it, too. Since then, Percy has been (very unhelpfully) playing on Will’s team. And then Piper joined in, even though she’s never played the game. 

“That doesn’t look like homework, Percy!” Leo struts into the room in pajama pants and a sweatshirt. He looks more tired than before his nap, a little sweaty and black curls in a ruined tangle. Gross. 

“And you don’t look like you took a nap,” Percy sasses back, a weird sing-song tone to his voice. Leo’s entire face goes red and a small fire blips into existence at the top of his head. Leo frantically tries to pat it out.

“ Shut up !” He hisses, glancing back at the guest-room door. He wrings his hands together, steam still rising off of his skin. 

Which, of course, does the opposite of getting them to shut up. All of their friends break out into loud laughter, much to Leo’s horror. He melts to the floor, holding his head in his hands. 

“Fuck you guys,” he whines.

“I don’t think it’s us that you want to—”

“I will burn you alive, McLean! We didn’t even do anything—”

Leo’s threats are useless. The teasing is endless, and Nico tries very hard to tune them out. He does not want to hear about Leo’s sex life, thank you very much. It seems like Leo doesn’t want to share either. For all his vibrato and bragging before having a girlfriend, it disappears when faced with the real deal. 

Will catches Nico’s gaze and rolls his eyes, laughing at their weird friends. At Nico’s weird friends. They keep playing Mythomagic like nothing is going on around them. That is, until Piper falls off the couch from how hard she’s laughing, and takes their set-up with her. Their entire playing field ends up on the ground, and instead of Mythomagic they’re forced to play 52-Pick-Up. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“Now that everyone has enjoyed their little break,” Piper squints in Leo’s direction. He gets an elbow to the ribs from Calypso for snickering back. “I have gathered you all here today for gifts! I’m calling it: Piper’s Very Sad Christmas.” 

“Uh oh.” And Percy is right to be worried. Once they were all present (and all of Nico’s Mythomagic cards were accounted for many times over, thank you Will), Piper sat them all down on the couch in anticipation for their next planned activity. Nico can tell she’s already holding back tears. The joke does nothing to soothe any of their nerves.

“I’m sorry, there’s really no good way to do this—” Piper’s confidence crumbles a little bit, and Annabeth is standing in an instant, holding Piper’s side steadfast. 

“Do you want me to take over?” Annabeth whispers to her, talking only to Piper as though the rest of them can’t hear. Which is just as well, because Nico will gladly pretend he can’t. 

Piper shakes her head, unable to look Annabeth in the eyes. “No, no—” 

Carefully, Annabeth releases Piper from her hold. She stays standing, back straight and shoulders squared like she’s backing Piper up in a fight. Her gray eyes shine with concern. 

“Um…” Piper turns back to the rest of them, managing to pull her gaze up from the carpet. “Obviously someone had to go through Jason’s stuff after— after—” Annabeth’s hand reaches up to squeeze Piper’s arm, prompting her to take a deep breath. 

“I don’t have a use for most of it, but I couldn’t bring myself to donate any of it, so I picked some stuff for everyone—” Piper says the words as fast as possible, like they aren’t real if she outpaces her own brain with her mouth. “I hope that isn’t… presumptuous. You don’t have to take any of it—”

Piper looks terrified. Nico has never seen her so shaken, so unsure. 

Annabeth pulls the other girl in for a hug. “I’m sure what you’ve picked is perfect.” She says into the top of Piper’s hair. Piper’s sniffling fills the room. 

“Take your time.” Annabeth says, soft in a way Nico hasn’t heard in a long time. And certainly not to anyone but Percy. He’s glad Annabeth and Piper have each other, their mothers an unlikely pair. But Piper saw Annabeth through searching for Percy, and now Annabeth is getting to return that favor seeing her through losing Jason. 

Nico wishes they were all friends on happier terms. 

Eventually, Piper composes herself enough to walk off to her bedroom, and comes back with a large cardboard box. 

“Who wants to go first?” She asks, devastated. Her kaleidoscope eyes shift between deep purple and a bottomless, yellowing shade of blue. Twin bruises. 

“I will,” Annabeth offers. She hasn’t moved from where Piper left her in front of the couch. 

The deep breath Piper takes is shaky at best, and she reaches carefully into her box. From it, she pulls a small, spiral sketchbook. It doesn’t look like anything Nico had seen Jason carry before, preferring letter sized paper that can easily be torn out and slid into sheet protectors or clipped into a binder. 

“I found this hidden at the back of his closet.” Piper has to pause for a breather, eyes starting to water. Annabeth nods, doing what she can to encourage Piper to continue. “And— and— I’m sorry, I can’t.” Piper looks away from her friend, thrusts the sketchbook forward. 

Annabeth takes it gingerly, thumbs the first page open as gently as she can. A polaroid photo of Jason and Thalia, sitting together under Thalia’s tree, is taped to the inside. Annabeth took the photo herself, when Thalia dropped by between hunts over the Summer. A parallel to the one Thalia carried of her and baby Jason. She runs a hand reverently over the image. Underneath it, in Jason’s handwriting, Annabeth reads out loud: “My friends.” His name is signed underneath.

They’re all on the edges of their seat, trying to catch a glimpse over Annabeth’s shoulder as she flips to the next page of the sketchbook. It’s a crude drawing of Percy and Annabeth, sitting on the beach at camp, laughing together. It’s clearly done with Jason’s favorite medium, a thin G-2 pen, like his shrine sketches were. Sharp lines and hatched shading. He did his best to communicate Annabeth’s dark skin tone without losing out on her expression, the resulting contrast making her the center of attention, her laugh a beautiful centerpiece in the drawing. “Oh,” Annabeth gasps. “I didn’t know he could draw like this.” 

“I didn’t either,” Piper says, throat thick with emotion. “I had never even seen the sketchbook until after he… yeah. There’s… a lot.” 

The next page is filled with scratched out attempts to draw Leo, as if Jason was trying to remember his face but getting frustrated when they didn’t turn out right. And then Nico, sitting on the roof of Zeus’ cabin, staring right at the viewer, smiling a sad little smile. Dark undereyes, endless pools for irises, strong shoulders but a delicate posture. Is that how Jason sees him? He looks thin and tired but… happy.  

The next few pages are drawings of Piper. Lots of Piper. Piper asleep, Piper smiling, Piper teary eyed, Piper in pajamas, Piper in her camp shirt, Piper dressed up for a date. More attempts at Leo are interspersed, most of them crossed out, a few shockingly accurate ones left unscribbled. A sketch of him, Leo, and Piper on the back of Festus where Jason’s practice drawing shrines really shines through, Festus drawn in glorious detail. The only one in color so far is Piper and Annabeth sharing a s’mores in campfire lighting, nearly choking from laughing so hard as the dessert threatens to fall between them into a sticky heap. There’s one of Percy and Nico play-fighting at the Poseidon table and, Nico’s personal favorite, one of Nico and Will’s backs as Nico takes a nap on his not-yet-boyfriend-at-the-time’s shoulder.  

“Piper, these are so sweet, but why me? Most of the drawings are of you guys?” Annabeth looks up at her best friend, choked up and fighting the tears. 

“Keep going,” Piper encourages, her voice a whisper. She’s not looking at the sketches with them. Nico can imagine that seeing herself through Jason’s eyes only hurts. He draws her so strong and elegant, beautiful but emphasizes her most unique features— her uneven hair, her square nose, her narrow eyes. In fact, Nico realizes that Jason draws them all that way. Takes their most interesting qualities, even if they might not be their best qualities, and focuses on them. Nico’s eyes always look sunken into his skull, dark enough to be spilled ink, his hair like he just rolled out of bed. Percy’s smile lines and the creases around his eyes are drawn in every time, without fail, and his posture is warm and welcoming. Annabeth’s braids are always in a different style, the look in her eyes sharp no matter her emotion. And Leo— all those attempts at drawing Leo. It’s like he can’t get the combination right. Ears too large on one, eyes not wide enough on another, smile too forced, smile not forced enough—

They’re all speechless. The sketches are beautiful.

Until Annabeth gets to the middle of the sketchbook, and all the sudden there’s writing , too. 

It’s a little sketch of the map of Camp Half-Blood, a broader outline of the surrounding woods, and a bunch of numbers: the size of the land Camp Half-Blood owns, the average number of campers, an estimated number of adult demigods, an estimated budget… for what? And then Annabeth turns the page. 

It’s a sketch of a welcome sign, like a very fancy entrance to a large downtown area, except the sign says “Welcome to New Greece!” At the bottom, a sticky note reads:

Three nights ago, I dreamt that New Rome wasn’t the only place for demigods to grow old safely within camp borders. It felt so… real. Everyone was there. It was the grand opening. I’m not sure if it was a prophetic dream or not. But I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. 

The next page has another sketch, a large, imposing, temple-like building with “University of New Greece” in Greek at the top, carved directly into stone. 

And then there’s a sketch of Percy, definitely older than he is now with a short beard and in a button down shirt, on the steps of that same building. He’s surrounded by paperwork, eating a muffin and tapping Riptide against his pant leg. 

“Like I said, I trusted Apollo with Jason’s other plans— his shrines to the minor gods and his temple drafts. I’m not saying you have to finish this idea. I just think— I think it’ll be best in your hands. I wouldn’t know where to start. I couldn’t even bring myself to finish looking through it.” The look in Piper’s eyes is full of so much desperation, so much hope, Nico isn’t sure how Annabeth could possibly say no. That won’t be an issue, thankfully, because Annabeth is nodding before Piper even finishes her sentence. 

“I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this—” Annabeth stares at the sketchbook in her hands in awe. She runs her thumb across the sketch of Percy’s face, tiny crumbs of muffin dotted across the corners of his mouth. 

Annabeth pulls Piper into a crushing hug, careful to set the sketchbook down first. 

They’re both crying quietly when she pulls back. “I’ll make sure it all gets finished. Exactly how he wanted it.” 

“Thank you. I knew you would.” Piper hiccups, wiping the tears from her face. She takes a moment to compose herself with a deep breath. “Who wants to go next?” 

Percy, Leo, and Nico all look at one another with matching looks of pain and suffering. None of them volunteer. Go figure. 

After a full ten seconds of silence, Leo hops up from the couch.

“You know what, I will! Totally. I volunteer as tribute!” Leo speaks like he’s trying to outrun his own words. The smile on his face is so fake it hurts to look at. 

Nico’s heart shatters when the two look each other in the eyes. Leo’s smile drops in an instant. The tears boil over again out of Piper’s eyes. 

Her hands are shaking when she pulls out Leo’s item. The tears flow faster.

A large fluffy lump of fabric in bright Roman purple. Jason’s favorite piece of clothing: his Camp Jupiter sweatshirt.

“He, um, the one from the bus— when we—” Piper can’t talk through her tears. They’re landing on the sweatshirt in her hands. Leo looks crushed.  

“Pipes… Are you sure?” He stares at the object in her hands. They both do. Neither one of them move, sobbing to themselves and looking at the hoodie like if they watched it long enough, Jason would suddenly materialize inside of it. Piper looks up at Leo and nods, eyes shining with equal parts fear and sadness. 

Leo falls to his knees. Piper closes the gap, hugging Leo tight, the fabric between them. He wraps short arms around her in turn, squeezing tight and burying his face in her shoulder to cry. Her dark braids get tangled in his curls, but neither of them notice. One inseparable lump of crying demigod.

It hurts to watch.

Jason used to put that sweatshirt on every night, fly himself up to the Zeus cabin’s roof, and sit there for hours. He would stare at the sky long after the sun set, wave at campers who walked underneath him. They would all join, sometimes. Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, and Nico. Jason would fly them up one by one and they’d lounge there and watch for Festus in the distance. Wait with baited breath to see if today was the day Leo came home. 

Nico feels hot tears well up in his own eyes. 

“Th-thanks—” Leo stands on shaky legs, peeling himself and Piper apart. He takes the sweatshirt from her delicately, but the moment it’s in his arms he hides his face in it and sobs directly into the fabric. He takes his place back by Calypso, and doesn’t lift his face from the hoodie for the rest of the exchange. 

Piper scoots back towards the box and wipes her eyes. “Um… so…” She looks back and forth between Nico and Percy. Now they really don’t want to go. 

“Screw it—” Percy volunteers, sitting in front of Piper and the box. He’s already crying. Nico can smell the grief radiating off of Percy, thick and crackling like an oncoming storm. 

Piper nods, expression falling in on itself and chewing on her lips, and goes digging in the box again. When she pulls back, she’s hyperventilating, but she holds her hands out anyways, something small enclosed in her palm. Percy holds his own shaking hands out to receive it. “He would have wanted you to have it,” is all Piper says, voice soaked in pain. And drops Jason’s Camp Half-Blood necklace into Percy’s hands. 

“ Fuck! ” Percy flinches and curls in on himself, clutching the leather tie with only one bead on it in his fist, dangling from twitching fingers. “Fuck!” He cries again, sobbing heavily into his arms. The sound of Percy’s anger rackets Nico’s heart into his throat. Piper wraps her arms around him, holding on for dear life as he shakes and yells and Annabeth has to crawl up to him, too, to steady him. A sob of Nico’s own rips out of his mouth, threatening to overwhelm him. He presses his palms to his eyes. 

No. No no no! Nico does not want to be here. He does not want this to be real. 

He wants Jason to be alive .

Will presses up against Nico’s side. 

“Hey. Do you want to wait until tomorrow to do yours?” Nico looks up at Will, feeling like a wild animal. He can’t respond to that. Another yell startles Nico and he looks over at Percy, who Annabeth has dragged to a corner of the room to talk him through what is clearly a panic attack. Percy’s whole body is shaking, he’s gone paler than when he returned from Tartarus. Dark eyes churn with anger and disbelief, a hurricane of their own, his shaggy hair a black cloud hanging over his head. Darkness and death pulse out from Percy in waves, tugging on Nico’s skin like a tide trying to draw him in.

And then Nico looks at Piper. Small and abandoned, crouching still next to the box, wrapping her own arms around herself for comfort. Even broken into a million pieces, she looks delicate and warm sitting there, a polar opposite of Percy. 

Alone.

No, not alone. Piper has them. Piper has Nico. And Nico can do this. He can do this for her. Because if they have to do this twice, it will be the end of them all. His item is the last one. He can do this. One foot in front of the other. 

Surely this is easier than going to Tartarus, right?

It doesn’t feel easier.

Nico stands up, controlling himself from outside of his body, and numbly sits next to Piper. 

When she looks up at him, it’s like she doesn’t see him at all. A ghost. She looks right through him, multicolor-eyes frozen in time, but turns to the box anyways. 

“I have two for you,” the words are emotionless, tears staining her cheeks. She pulls out an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. The inside collar has JASON lovingly sharpied in capital letters against it. Claimed. In Jason’s precise handwriting. “You’re the only one without an orange camp shirt. None of us need it…” She looks at the t-shirt instead of Nico. 

It’s four sizes too big. 

A whimper escapes Nico’s lips, despite doing his best to hold it back. With every passing second, he feels more and more like he’s watching himself from above, rather than in his own body. The orange shirt looks too bright in his hands. 

“And, um, the other—” Piper turns back to the box. Nico stares at himself slumped against the floor, a heap of black against the already dark wood. His knuckles are white form clutching the orange t-shirt, staring with hollow eyes at Jason’s name in the hem. Piper’s eyes are much the same, black as night as they reflect Nico when she turns back around with her second gift.

Imperial Gold glints in her hands. Jason’s Gladius. 

“You, uh,” Piper’s voice is harsh with use. Sandpaper-y and dry. “You’ll get the most use out of it, I think.” She cringes at her own words, clearly not what she wanted to say. 

It would be less painful if she stabbed him with it. 

She places it in his shaking hands. The gladius shines cold light back at him.

And all of a sudden Nico’s not sitting on the floor anymore.

He’s standing. Barely standing. And his chest feels wet. 

Why is his chest wet? 

He looks down to find a chest much broader than his own and— that’s not supposed to be there. The sharp end of a golden spear juts out of the center of his chest.

The pain is like nothing else. The wound radiates dizzying heat. He can’t hear himself think over the sound of wind whipping, of wood boards snapping and fiberglass tearing in two. The yacht is coming down around them, they’re out of time. He’s still pointing, still trying to scream, desperate for something, anything , to make this work, but the air in his lungs doesn’t feel like his own. He has to make sure they’re okay . There's a chasm between him and Piper and Lester, but Tempest will take them to safety. And that’s enough. As long as they’re okay. As long as they make it.

He came to terms with this fate long ago.

“Remember!” He manages to shout, Jason’s voice leaving his mouth, eyes locking with Lester. He can’t take it anymore. The pain, it’s too much.

He collapses to his knees, free hand scrabbling to grab the intrusion at his middle. Wet. Wheezing. Not much longer left — A twist, a sickening crunch, and the only thing he can feel is the cold of his cheek against splintered floors. His nerves short circuit with the pain. 

His grip goes slack. The gladius clatters against the ground. 

It takes Nico a second to realize the sound isn’t coming from next to his head, inside that splintering boat. It’s coming from Piper’s living room floor.

Everyone is looking at him. Even Percy, hands in his hair and still shaking with tears rushing down his face. Worry colors their eyes. 

Nico grabs desperately at his chest, mouth open in a silent scream, to make sure there’s nothing there. To make sure it’s not soaked with blood. Thank the gods his chest is solid underneath his touch. 

A gentle hand brushes Nico’s shoulder. “What hap—?” Nico doesn’t let Will finish. He makes a mad dash for the back porch.

“Nico!” Will yells after him, standing to give chase. 

Opening the back door will slow him down too much, so Nico shadow travels to the other side.

Chapter Text

Nico wakes before the sun the next morning. Before Will, before the others, before the thoughts can catch up with him. The night outside through the windows is pale with the impending dawn. Leaning over the side of the pull out couch, Nico finds the harsh green lights over the stove that read 4:00 AM. 

He extracts himself slowly from Will’s embrace. The hardwood is cold when his bare feet hit the ground. 

Leaning against the couch, Jason’s gladius glimmers even without light to hit it. Nico reaches over into his suitcase, grabs the Camp Half-Blood t-shirt with Jason’s name in the collar, and wraps it around the gladius. He pads across the living room, taking them both with him to the back porch. 

The back door opens with a creak, loud in the silence of the early morning. Outside, the campfire is still putting off tiny streams of smoke from last night. Piper and Leo must have stayed up extra late. 

Nico settles on one of the cloth camping chairs set out by the firepit, sticks the sharp end of the gladius into the dirt so he can carefully unwrap it from the t-shirt without touching it. 

The air is cold in the early morning, sun not present to warm the October air. He takes his pajama shirt off anyways, shivering as his skin is exposed, and replaces it with Jason’s Camp Half-Blood shirt. It’s huge. The thing comes all the way down to his knees. Nico pulls his feet up to rest against the chair and tucks his chin down, pulling the shirt over around his legs. 

It doesn’t smell like Jason, which makes sense. No traces of sweat and rust, no overwhelming scent of campfire smoke or wet grass. He hasn’t worn it for six months. Half of a year. Jason has been gone for half a year now. Nico can hardly believe it. 

Nico sits there in the silence, feeling the wind against his cheek and listening to the birds chirp in anticipation of the sunrise. 

He’s glad he’s here to watch the sun come up, because he didn't get to see it in his dreams last night. No Jason, no Apollo, no Lester. No Thalia’s tree or Half-Blood Hill. Just darkness. Him and the backs of his eyelids. 

Nico drifts his gaze from the early dawn to the golden sword to his right. The whole reason he’s out here. 

Last night, it took a long time for him to calm down from his meltdown. Percy and Will sat with him for almost an hour, trying to coax him into telling them what happened, what he saw. And even then, Nico couldn’t get out more than a few words at a time. Piper apologized over and over and over again until they were both sick to the stomach. Eventually, everyone was outside comforting Nico, and Leo ended up starting a fire for them to sit around. Nico and Piper clung to one another like their lives depended on it long after the sun dipped below the horizon, listening silently as their friends chatted around them. 

No one brought up Jason. 

It wasn’t Piper’s fault. How was she supposed to know Nico would see the moment of Jason’s death when he touched the gladius? That he would feel the wet of his chest and see the life drain from his fingertips— white, bloodless, as his sword fell from his limp grasp. 

…And Nico needs to see it again. He needs to feel it again, if only to know the presence of Jason one last time. 

So Nico stares at the gladius. He sizes it up, eyes it for everything it’s worth. Unassuming, plain, gold. Practical and streamlined. A tool meant for a job. A gift from Juno. 

Just like Jason.

He reaches out, boney fingers hovering centimeters from the hilt. Nico isn’t even sure it’ll show him the same vision again. It might not do anything at all to touch it— but Nico has to try.

Nico takes a deep breath. And then another. And lets his hand drop the last few atoms to come in contact with Imperial Gold. 

His vision goes black, but he’s prepared this time, so Nico knows he’s Jason. He can’t see, but he can feel . The warm, wet feeling is still there, trickling against his chest and festering. But, unlike last time, where Jason’s emotions were a swirling storm of determination and pain and anger and want — there’s only love.

No panic. No concern. He knows they won, they did what they had to do. And Jason did what he set out to do. Die. Die for Piper, for Apollo, for Meg, for the world. Like he was always meant to do. Die a hero. 

He was never cut out for living, anyways.

His chest isn’t moving with any breath, he can’t feel his arms or legs. The only thing he can see is inky darkness. Hell, he can’t even feel if he’s still on the slowly capsizing yacht or at the bottom of the ocean. It wouldn’t make a difference. They won. They won— and Jason died for the people he loved the most. 

He thinks of Percy, knows he’s going to do a great job at New Rome University even if Jason’s not there with him. Because he has Annabeth. He thinks of Nico, of how upset he’s going to be when he finds out. But he’ll be okay. Because he has Will. And Jason trusts Will to take good care of Nico. He thinks of Leo, and how sad he is that they never got to see each other again, but that’s far outweighed by the happiness he feels that Leo is alive . He thinks of the peace Reyna found, of how proud he is of Hazel and Frank, of what Thalia might be doing right now. 

The last thought Jason has before he leaves his body is that he hopes Piper finds what she’s looking for. 

Nico yanks his hand back from the hilt, buries his face in bright orange fabric with a heaving sob. 

“Selfless bastard ,” Nico hisses out loud, for the trees to hear. And Nico sits there, crying as loud as he pleases at the woods and the sky, cursing at Jupiter and Juno and the gods with every curse he’s come to know in every language he’s learned. And when the sun rises, Will joins him, and curses the gods right alongside him. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“I feel like we need a little bit of a mood lightener,” Piper says once they’re all awake, eating their breakfasts side by side in silence. 

Percy already has Jason’s camp necklace tied around his neck, sitting underneath his own. The single orange and purple bead isn’t lonely anymore, accompanied by Percy’s many beads on his own. The bags under his eyes say he didn’t sleep a wink. Leo’s wearing the giant SPQR sweatshirt, drowning in the fabric and not bothering to pull his hands out from the too-long sleeves. He clearly didn’t brush his wild curls before trudging out to the living room. Nico still has on the orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, his own pajama shirt now keeping Jason’s gladius safe from his touch, wrapped and placed gently in his luggage. Even Piper has dawned a shirt of Jason’s. An old, dull-purple, smaller SPQR shirt that hadn’t fit him in a long time but was still with his belongings at Camp Jupiter. Nico can’t imagine the older boy ever being that small. He has a hard time imagining Jason as a child at all. 

“We definitely need a little TLC,” Percy says. He’s been stirring soggy Frosted Flakes around in blue milk (who gave him access to the food dye?) for twenty minutes now. 

“We could play cards again?” Calypso suggests. The smile she cracks is half-hearted.

Leo rolls his eyes. The kitchen counter is in disarray around him with random bolts and wires. It doesn’t look like he’s making anything today except for a tangled mess. 

“Nico’s just going to win again,” he grumbles. 

“I’m sorry,” Nico snaps. He means to apologize genuinely, but it comes out much more scathing than intended. Leo flinches. Damnit. Will’s arm wraps around Nico’s shoulders.

“How about we get out of the house? Get some fresh air? We can drive to a store or something and buy s’mores supplies for tonight. I know I’ve been missing my nightly campfire treat!” Will plasters his brightest smile on his face. Leave it to Will to know how to put them all back together. They need a task to complete, a quest of some kind. Something to do , and feel proud of when they succeed. The others nod in agreement.

“I haven’t had a good s’mores since the send-off campfire at the end of Summer.” Some of the light returns to Percy’s eyes. Jason was still alive, for that. Ate s’mores at the campfire with them, laughed with them, teased Nico about still not dating Will with them.

Nico is starting to think he’d do just about anything to get that back.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Julius-Albert picks them up, and off to the nearest Walmart they go. 

Nico has come to appreciate these weird monuments to capitalism in his time living in the modern era. No matter where he was in the United States, no matter where he ended up in a wayward shadow travel— if he needed supplies, there was a Walmart nearby. They’re the perfect place to stumble into after a monster attack, bleeding from both arms and both legs, and no one looks at him funny. 

The quadruple wide doors slide open and let the seven teenagers inside.

“I love Walmart,” Percy sighs dreamily.

“I hate Walmart,” Annabeth admonishes. They look at one another and share a laugh.

“Should I be worried about monsters?” Calypso eyes the inside of the large store warily, packed with people despite the early hour, scanning down each aisle and looking over her shoulder as they go.

“Nah, too many mortals. This place reeks of the regular world, monsters shouldn’t be able to smell us over it,” Percy responds, posture more relaxed than Nico has seen all week. He’s strolling from shelf to shelf, picking random things up and examining them just to put them back. Most of them are blue. Annabeth nods along with her boyfriend. A few of the items Percy picks up and replaces get plucked up by Annabeth behind Percy’s back and placed into their cart, which Will is dutifully pushing. With Nico’s help, of course. And by help, Nico means standing on the other end of the cart and making Will push him , too. 

When the fourth random item makes it into their cart, this time a small digital clock in a beach-themed plastic casing, Nico raises an eyebrow at Annabeth. She holds a finger up to her mouth and winks, shushing him. Which leaves Nico more confused than before.

“Is there anything we need or want other than food?” Piper asks, picking up a tiny shark plushie Annabeth put in the cart and tucking it into her jacket instead. Nico choses to pretend he did not see.

“Oh!” Will stops looking around Nico to see where he’s going and looks right at him. “Pants?” He asks, short and sweet. Probably not a bad idea, since Nico has worn Will’s sweatpants two nights in a row, and chose to wear them out to Walmart today. They definitely need to be retired to the wash. 

Nico squeezes the sharp edges of the shopping cart beneath his hands, playing with the metal rungs as he thinks. Is he in the mood for that today? He’s still feeling very raw from last night and this morning, like his skin is turned inside out and his emotions are flayed open for everyone to see. It’s not a good feeling, and it’s definitely not conducive to clothes shopping.

“We could split up,” Percy offers, finally stopping where he’s walked quite a bit up ahead, distracted by all the knick-knacks and home decor. He turns around and gives Nico a sympathetic look. 

Nico nods his head, grateful for the suggestion. Splitting up sounds much more manageable. Nico would rather not have all of their friends stare at him while he tries on more clothing than he currently owns. Which is genuinely thoughtful of Percy to think of. And he’s sincere about it, not giving Nico that pathetic wet dog look like Nico hates his life and everyone around him. 

Nico is only like that sometimes , thank you very much.

It’s then that Percy notices some of the items he had perused earlier are sitting in the cart. “What—?” 

“The dorm is still a little empty… I was thinking we could use some more stuff,” Annabeth says. The look she gives him back is sheepish , a new expression for her. A kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. 

“But… it’s not going to match your vision board!” Percy looks horrified by the idea. He may as well ask Annabeth to chop off her own hand. 

“Maybe I don’t want it to match the vision board.” Annabeth raises a challenging eyebrow. Percy clearly did not consider this answer, because his mouth opens and closes like a fish floundering for air. Eventually, he gives up trying to think of a protest, and smiles. 

“Something is clearly up. Don’t think I’m not onto you, Wise Girl.” He shakes an accusatory finger at her, but it’s all for show. They laugh at one another, the rest of their friends making sounds of mock disgust as Annabeth leans into Percy’s space to give him a kiss. 

“You’re both corny,” Piper says, rolling her eyes affectionately at her friends. There’s something else there, too. A spark of something sad, something longing. “But I think Percy has the right idea. Divide and conquer? Annabeth and Percy can go do some dorm shopping, Nico and Will can go look at pants, and the rest of us will go get s’mores supplies!” 

“Are you okay with that?” Will asks Nico, leaning over the cart handlebars to get closer to Nico’s face. Probably to watch his expression and make sure Nico’s not lying to him. Will is practically a human lie detector when it comes to Nico.  

Nico stops to give it some real thought, because Will will call him out on it if he doesn’t. He definitely needs new pants, there’s no denying that. The last few days, he’s been panicking that his friends are going to see that he packed next to nothing. He can only re-wear a shirt so many times before they notice. And they are in the perfect place to buy them. Buying them now will save Nico from taking a day trip out of Camp Half-Blood to get them, and he’ll have Will here with him instead of going it alone. 

But, also, this will be the first clothing Nico buys for himself in… ever. Nico realizes he’s never really picked clothing for himself. Sally Jackson gave him some of Percy’s hand-me-downs when Nico outgrew his clothes from the Lotus Casino (which the other boy never recognized, thank the gods). He’s stolen clothes from stores after bad battles, taken things that happened to end up in the Underworld either from his father or random spirits, and, on one terrible occasion which he does not like to remember, had to peel the clothes off of one of Luke’s demigod followers he fought and take them for himself, his own torn to shreds. 

It would be nice to end up with some clothes Nico actually likes for once, rather than just something that will do . How is he going to figure out what to buy?

Nico needs backup. Stat.

“You guys are going to leave me with Will to pick out new clothes?” Nico feigns horror, lifting an eyebrow at Piper, trying to tempt her into coming with them. Piper takes the bait. Hook, line, and sinker. She purses her lips, squints her kaleidoscope eyes at Will. She scans his outfit: a yellow flannel shirt, cargo shorts despite the chill outside, and, of course, the dreaded brown flip flops . Will’s sense of style leaves something to be desired. Nico is almost positive Will is secretly color blind and won't admit it. 

“...Good point. Will cannot be trusted,” Piper concedes. She fixes Leo and Calypso with a serious look. “Can I trust you two to acquire the s’mores supplies?” 

“Yes ma’am!” Leo straightens his spine and holds his hand up in a firm salute. 

Piper salutes back, satisfied. 

“But don’t think this is going to be some Aphrodite kid makeover, di Angelo. I am not your beauty guru,” Piper laughs, taking up her new spot standing next to Will. 

“And thank the gods for that,” Nico teases back. 

With that, they settle into their new groups, Annabeth and Percy taking the cart with them looking every bit the old married couple they are. Nico looks forlornly after his lost steed. Now he has to walk. Tragic.

“I’m offended that you both think so little of my fashion sense! Look at me! I’m the pinnacle of fashion,” Will whines as they walk away. They both ignore him. 

Finding Nico pants, however, turns out to be more of an ordeal than he expected.

“They’re not practical !” Will cries, poking a finger into the shallow pockets of the black jeans Piper pulled off the rack.

“ Will that is not the only criteria for clothing. At least let him try them on! He can buy more than one pair!” Piper waves the jeans around dangerously. The three of them have been alone for ten minutes. Clearly, things are going great.

“What about these? See, these ? These are practical!” Will turns around from a nearby rack with a pair of dark camo pants in hand with an absurd amount of pockets. Freckled cheeks puff up from holding back laughter, and Nico heaves a sigh of relief that the other boy was joking. 

“Ha ha. Very funny, Solace.” Nico rolls his eyes, chewing on the end of one of his fingernails. 

“Okay but… wait.” Piper eyes the pants Will was holding up as a gag, looking them up and down. 

“Absolutely not,” Nico hisses. 

“Oh, come on. What? Is green too much color for you, oh great Ghost King?” Piper snatches the pants to get a closer look at them, holds them up to Nico, and then trades them out for a larger size. 

“It’s not—” Nico wants to say it’s not the color that’s the issue, but he doesn’t really know what the issue is . Probably that Will was holding them literally as a joke, and now Piper wants him to actually try them on.

“Not listening!” Piper plugs her ears. “Trust me on this one. I have a vision .” And whatever vision that is sends Piper on a mission . She starts flipping through racks like a madman, the two younger boys following her around like lost shadows. They entertain themselves by occasionally poking one another in the side or making silly faces over Piper’s shoulders. They even start a short game of tag, dodging between clothing racks before they almost mow down a mom and her toddler. The older woman laughs them off as they try to apologize profusely. Still, they make their way back to Piper out of embarrassment. The second they're back, she starts dumping clothes she’s picked out into Will and Nico’s arms.

“Surely this is enough,” Nico groans when the pile in his arms gets so high he can barely see over it. It’s a sea of blacks, bright reds, and dark greens.

Piper whips around to look at him, a wild look in her eyes. She shakes her head to clear it. “Oh. Uh. Yeah. That’s probably good.” She laughs at herself, looking at the mountains of clothes in their arms. She did not hold back, there are far more than just pants in the pile. 

“To the changing rooms?” Will asks, blue eyes and bright smile just barely poking over the top of the pile, grinning wide at Nico. 

“This is going to take forever, ” Nico groans. 

It doesn’t actually take forever, Nico’s just dramatic. Nothing new. 

When he first steps into the changing room, his appearance is a shock to his system. He’s drowning in Jason’s Camp Half-Blood shirt and Will’s sweatpants. He’s not small anymore— now that he’s nearing an acceptable weight for his height— his friends are simply godlike in stature. Jason was a whole foot taller than him, and then some. Will has a few good inches on him. Enough that his pants are obviously long when Nico borrows them. 

All Nico did this morning was brush his hair and slide on some rings to fidget with while they walked through the store. Hair fluffy and clothes a few sizes too big, he looks like he could still be at his weakest. Fourteen and wasting away— seconds from disappearing forever into the shadows. He can imagine his cheekbones sinking in, his skin pallid and cold. Nico hates it. Not a great way to start off an entire session of trying on clothes. 

He takes off Jason’s camp shirt and neatly folds it, setting it on the available bench, tossing Will’s sweatpants on top as quickly as he can step out of them. Out of the too-large clothes, Nico feels a little better. He takes in his filled out face littered with scars, the warmth that has returned to his skin since Will started forcing him to spend time outside. His dark eyes are less startling like this, more deep pools than endless voids— which reminds him of Jason’s drawings. He wonders if Jason would draw him any different now. Healthier, happier. Nico thinks he looks a whole Hells of a lot different. Would his friend agree?

Nico shoves the thought out of his head and grabs the first shirt and pants from the top of his pile. A black cut-off shirt and the camo pants Piper demanded they consider. 

Might as well start off with a bang.

Nico tugs them on and, without looking in the mirror, exits the changing room. 

Thank the gods that Piper and Will are the only two people in the changing rooms, because Will goes bright red and Piper gives him a low whistle. She motions for Nico to spin with a twirl of her finger. It’s Nico’s turn to blush as he holds his arms out awkwardly and obliges her with a little spin. 

“I knew it! You look cool .” Piper nods to herself, satisfied, a mischievous smile dancing across her face as the younger boys’ faces get redder by the second. 

“You look really cool,” Will agrees, staring wide-eyed, gaze flicking between Nico’s arms, chest, and legs. 

Piper points behind him and Nico instinctually follows her finger until he’s face to face with himself in a very large floor to ceiling mirror.

Oh. Hello. 

Nico barely recognizes himself. Which is silly, because it’s just clothing, but…

He looks good .

The shirt is tighter than he imagined it would be, falling nicely against his frame. It makes him look healthier, larger, emphasizes the muscles he’s gotten back in his arms with that high protein diet Dr. Solace prescribed. The pants are baggy on purpose , a far cry from the way Will’s too-big sweatpants made him feel just moments ago. Nico might even dare say he looks… intimidating. And not in the scrawny what is that thing it’s going to hunt me down for food kind of way— but in the real, larger-than-life, scary kind of way. 

“We’re so buying those.” Piper nods to herself. “Next!” 

Nico tries on item after item. Some of them don’t fit or he doesn’t vibe with— like any of the tank tops, which make him feel self-conscious about his slim frame, and a few pairs of skinny jeans that are just a little too skinny, but most of them are perfect. 

Piper really did have a vision. Nico has never felt more badass in his life. There’s a black jean vest that makes him feel way cooler than he deserves to feel, and Piper shows him how to layer the long-sleeves under the baggy t-shirts. For a brief moment, Nico thinks he looks like a depressed version of 15-year-old Percy, and that makes him feel terrible. But then he remembers he found 15 year-old Percy hot… so… maybe that’s a comparison he can live with.

Each time he comes out in a new outfit, Will gets progressively more red in the face. Funnily enough, it’s the black cargo shorts and a black-and-white striped long-sleeve under a button-down that gets him. The second Nico walks out of the stall Will loudly announces that he has to use the bathroom and bolts for the door, Piper cackling in her seat.

“Is he… okay?” Nico asks, raising an eyebrow at the door swinging back and forth where Will took his speedy exit. 

Piper waves a dismissive hand, struggling to keep herself from laughing. “He’ll be fine.” She walks over to the small pile Nico still has left to go through, looking for another suitable combination. “To his credit, you look like a completely different person in clothes that actually fit you.” 

“In… a good way?” Nico eyes himself again in the large mirror. He hopes it’s a good way, because he thinks it is. The outfit is nice, maybe a hair too shapeless for his taste, but it looks put together. Like he actually has an aesthetic, instead of just rolling out of bed and throwing on the first thing he sees (like he usually does). 

“Yes, in a good way.” Piper comes to stand next to Nico in the mirror. He can’t help but compare them to one another. 

Barely an inch taller than him, she draws all the light in the room to her, in stark contrast to how the shadows pool around Nico. Piper’s complexion is dark, warmed by the sun, her cheekbones round and nose flat. In fact, there’s a roundness to her everywhere, practical muscles covered and a small layer of equally practical fat. Nico’s skin, on the other hand, is recovering. A light olive and dusted with new sunspots and freckles, his cheekbones and nose equally sharp. And he hasn’t had any extra fat on his body since he was 11. He’s working on it, though. Piper’s long, deep brown hair, which she chopped off ritualistically after Jason’s death, has grown out uneven. She hasn’t touched it since that day, far past her shoulders now. How it grew so fast, Nico has no idea. It looks intentional— as with everything Piper does to her appearance, unable to escape her parentage. Nico’s hair, on the other hand…

“Would you give me a haircut?” Nico blurts before he can lose the nerve. 

“Right now?” Piper reaches for her belt where her dagger is sheathed. 

“Um—”

“I was kidding, Nico,” Piper laughs, warm and loud. She removes her hand from her weapon, much to Nico’s relief. “But yeah! Definitely. What don’t you like about it? I think the long hair looks good on you.”

Nico blushes at the compliment. “I do too. I don’t know, it’s kind of just… there?” He tries to smooth it down as he looks at it in the mirror, but the uneven bits and the different textures refuse to yield under his hands. “Bianca’s always looked so… soft. It suited her. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Piper’s expression goes mushy at the mention of Nico’s late sister. Nico isn’t sure how much she even knows. He wonders if Percy has told any of them more about her than her name. “Is it that you don’t like it? Or that you think it doesn’t look like you ?”

Piper takes the words right out of his brain. Stupid Aphrodite emotion powers or whatever. (Nico doesn’t know if that’s a thing, but it feels like it is with Piper. Often.)

“Yeah… it doesn’t look like me . I think— I’ve never told anyone this—” Nico hesitates, fear spiking in his blood. His nerves threaten to light on fire but Piper places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. It doesn’t feel like when Will does, literally healing; or when Percy does, brotherly and understanding; or when Jason did, grounding and steady. It feels… there. Piper is telling Nico she’s here. Not in any particular way. She just is. For some reason, it’s exactly what Nico needs right now. It gives Nico the confidence he needs to continue. 

“I’ve been having a really hard time recognizing myself just… in general.” Nico waves his hands around, gesturing to himself and to the mirror and his hair and his still-too-pale skin and— “It’s better than it was, right after the war, but… I don’t know. I look at myself and it takes me a long time to register who I’m looking at as me . I know none of you know what I looked like before, but—” Nico can’t find it in himself to finish. Bright, happy, thriving under the sun. Round cheeks and a permanent flush of joy. The little boy that still runs around in his chest and his lungs and his heart, looking for an exit.

“You changed a lot. And I doubt you were looking in mirrors very often, with everything going on.” Piper gives Nico’s shoulder a squeeze. “Anyone would struggle to recognize themself under the conditions you were given.”

Nico nods, little waves of sadness crashing against his ribcage, radiating from that inner child he knows is there. It feels like more than what Piper described, but Nico doesn’t have the words, so he doesn’t say anything.

“Can I offer a bit of advice?” Piper asks, and she means it. Nico knows she means it. If he says no, she’ll drop it. 

“Sure,” he says instead. They’re making eye-contact in the mirror. 

“Part of why I do stupid stuff to my hair and my looks is because it gives me a sense of control. Maybe, by making choices about what you look like— cutting your hair, picking your clothes— you’ll start to feel a little more like yourself again?” Piper tilts her head in the mirror, her gaze affectionate. Nico's heart thumps with joy and anger and sadness all at once at receiving what it perceives as sisterly advice. 

“Maybe.” There’s hope in his voice, when he says it. He’d like to believe that could be true. There’s only one way to find out. “We better get back to it, then.” Nico attempts a small smile, grins a little wider when he catches it in the mirror and it doesn’t look scary or Hades-like at all— just shy. Nico can deal with shy. 

“We better get back to it,” Piper echoes. And they continue on. Without Will— what’s taking him so long?

Piper starts pitching haircut ideas as Nico comes in and out of the stall. 

“How short are you thinking?” She asks, lounging back on her forearms, appraising the turtleneck Nico walked out in with a firm nod and thumbs up. He goes back in for a new shirt. 

“I’m not sure?” Nico says through the stall door. “Will likes it long…” 

“Oooh,” Piper hums, teasing, and she’s wiggling her eyebrows when Nico exits again. 

“Don’t make that face,” he tells her, deadpan. Nico gestures to the skeleton cat print button-down, gives it a thumbs up that Piper returns. Shopping in October was an excellent choice. Nico loves all the cringe-worthy Halloween-themed clothing. He may have scoffed at that being too on-the-nose not even a year ago, but he has come to accept that he genuinely enjoys being a walking silly advertisement for the Underworld. 

“I’m not making a face,” Piper says, still making a face. Nico rolls his eyes and goes in for another shirt. They ran out of pants to try on— the cargo shorts were the last ones. This one is a Fall Out Boy shirt, which he almost doesn’t try on out of principle because this is one of Percy’s favorite bands, but then he thinks it would be kind of funny, so he tries it on anyway. 

“I don’t like it being in my eyes. I thought about putting it up, sometimes, but I can never get the ponytail to sit right. They look stupid on me.” Nico comes out in the Fall Out Boy shirt and gets another low whistle from Piper. It has little fashion-holes in it, tight as can be. Oh, he’s buying this one. 

“Ponytails can be tricky. Sometimes they make you look like a supermodel and sometimes they make you look like a founding father. I can show you how to put it up! But we’ll want to keep it at least to your shoulders then or it’ll be too short for that.” Piper nods, staring at Nico’s hair now instead of his clothes, doing her mental math and leaving Nico to wonder what the Hades a founding father is. 

There are two more shirts, and Nico gets them both on and off as quickly as he can, not loving either of them, while Piper thinks. When he steps back out, finally in his own (in Jason’s and Will’s) clothes again, Piper sizes him up and says, “How would you feel about a wolf cut?”

“What’s a wolf cut?”

Which is how Nico ends up sitting on the toilet of Piper’s one bathroom, hugging the tank to his chest as Piper pokes and prods his hair from behind for the best point of entrance. 

The rest of their friends are miraculously smushed into the tiny space. Percy and Leo are sitting in the shower-tub combo, legs tangled together and giggling to themselves about gods know what. Annabeth is sitting politely at the tub’s edge, watching Piper’s every move. Will leans against the sink, arms crossed, visible in the mirror that skirts the edge of Nico’s vision. Calypso elected to sit with her back against the bathroom door. 

“I still don’t understand what a wolf cut is,” Nico grumbles, leaning his head against his sweaty palm. It’s hot in the tiny bathroom— too many people. Some random pop music plays from Piper’s speakers, Will’s magic iPod connected to it by a tiny, perfectly shaped dock. Piper was triumphant when she found the old speakers in her bedside drawer, and even more excited when it still worked. 

“Do you trust me?” Piper asks, kitchen scissors held in the air. Every bone in Nico’s body says no. For some reason, he nods. “Good.” 

And Piper sets to work. 

“Piper… this playlist,” Will laughs halfway through Piper spraying Nico’s hair down with water. She decided it was far too unruly while dry. “Really feeling some type of way, huh?” 

“Stuff it, Solace.” Piper flicks him off with the hand holding the scissors, somehow. She’s all smiles. Even though Nico doesn’t get the joke, it’s nice to be together and happy again. They really needed that breather. 

“What about it?” Calypso asks from her spot on the floor, tracing her fingers along chips in the grout. That cannot be a pleasant texture, Nico shudders. He’s glad she asked, though. Calypso is even more out of the loop on modern music than he is.

“I don’t get it either. I know all of these songs. Am I missing something?” Percy stops playing footsies with Leo long enough to participate in the conversation. 

“No one else noticed that it’s all female artists? And that the songs are all… you know…” Will starts to gesture with his wrist, but he stops himself. Nico makes wide-eyed eye contact with Will, motioning to drop it. The boy’s face goes through the five stages of grief, glowing with embarrassment. Piper’s hands are still and ice cold against Nico’s scalp.

Everyone stops moving. 

“They’re all…?” Percy breaks the silence, squinting at Will in confusion and looking around at everyone else. Calypso, who wasn’t fooled by Piper’s charmspeak a few days ago, looks embarrassed for her, eyes on the tiles and teeth bared in a grimace. Annabeth stares straight up at the ceiling, crease in her forehead like she’s praying to the gods the two other boys don’t pick now to remember that Piper sort-of memory-wiped them with her magic after coming out. 

“Guys, this isn’t funny, you know I hate feeling stupid.” Percy leans into Annabeth's side to give her puppy eyes. When she doesn’t cave, he lifts his hands into the air. “I’ll burst all the pipes in this house right now—”

“It’s ironic because I’m a lesbian, Percy!” Piper shrieks, fingers tightening in Nico’s hair and pulling on accident. The tiny squeak he makes causes her to yank her hand out of his hair. “Oh my gods, I’m so sorry—”

“It’s okay,” Nico mumbles, rubbing the top of his head to soothe it.

All of them are silent while Percy and Leo process Piper’s words. It’s a weird vibe with the music still blasting in the background. They look at each other, they look at Piper, they look at everyone else and— bingo . They remember. Percy stands so abruptly Nico is surprised he doesn’t accidentally smash through the too-low shower ceiling. 

“You used charmspeak on us!” He accuses, pointing at Piper. 

“I panicked!” Piper throws her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry! I— I shouldn’t have. I should have just faced the consequences of my actions, or whatever.”

Leo doesn’t look shocked like Percy does, he looks upset . Oh great. All of their hard work resetting the mood and they’re right back here again. “You could have asked us to drop it as, like, your friends? You didn’t have to mind-wipe us.” Leo’s voice radiates hurt and he won’t look at Piper. If the lighting in the bathroom was better Nico would be able to tell if his cheeks are red with oncoming tears or if it’s the weird orange light bulbs. 

Piper shifts uncomfortably. “I told you, I panicked. I’m really sorry,” she whispers. 

“Wait a minute. Did everyone already know except me and Leo?” Everyone looks away from Percy, refusing to meet his eyes. Will hums along uncomfortably to the Avril Levigne that fills the awkward silence, very off key.

“ Calypso knew?! How is that even—” Leo doesn't get to finish his sentence. Piper jumps in to defend herself. 

“Calypso saw through my charmspeak! I didn’t— I didn’t tell her . Gods , Leo, I’m sorry I didn’t realize this was such a big deal…”

“Piper. You’re my best friend! I thought— I thought you would—” Leo’s voice breaks. He pulls Jason’s hoodie sleeves up to bury his face against them. His chest heaves once, twice, three times— and then he pulls his face back up and he’s smiling. His eyes are watery and his cheeks are definitely red this time, but he’s putting on a brave face. “Nah, never mind. I get it. You had a lot going on. It’s not fair of me to demand you tell me everything all of the time. You’re allowed to have girl talk things.” Leo shakes his head, but something is clearly different. His eyes hold a little less shine. 

“Don’t be fucking stupid , Leo,” Piper snaps. She backs away from Nico’s hair, setting down her scissors and the spray bottle. Nico turns to watch as she squeezes herself into the tub. It’s awkward, and far too close-quarters, but she makes it work. Her and Leo’s knees slot together in a way that has to be uncomfortable, but she ignores it in favor of taking Leo’s face into her hands. 

Time slows down. Piper's long fingers graze Leo's black curls. They stare into each other’s eyes, dark brown on every color of the rainbow, a silent conversation between them. The warm lights cast strange cold shadows across both of their faces, highlighting their cheekbones and eyebrow ridges. Leo’s ears look extra pointy, his eyes extra large. Piper’s body is contorted and crunched up. They look like a strange renaissance painting. 

When Piper speaks, they all listen.

“I didn’t tell you because I was embarrassed by how my and Jason’s relationship ended. We thought we were going to be like Annabeth and Percy. Jason and I thought we were going to be forever . And then… I realized something was off. And we broke up. And then he went and fucking died. You were grieving, I was grieving— I didn’t want to burden you with all that information while you were still processing Jason’s death. Percy, too. I told Annabeth because she was the only one I could trust not to burst into tears the second I said his name. Not because she’s my girl best friend or for some other dumb reason. I promise. I wanted to tell you, I just didn’t want to do any more damage than I already had.” 

The fake smile melts from Leo’s face, replaced by a bittersweet shadow. The war between dying on his insecure hill and believing Piper takes place across his face. 

“That— that makes sense,” Leo concedes, looking to the right of Piper instead of into her eyes. 

They stay there for a few extra heart beats.

“Are we good?” Piper asks, brushes her thumb under Leo’s left eye where tears almost boiled over the edges of his long lashes. 

“Yeah, we’re good. Not getting rid of me that easily,” Leo sniffles. When he smiles this time, it’s genuine. 

“Okay, good. Because I have to cut Nico’s hair before he chickens out.” Which gets a laugh out of all of their friends. 

And then Piper is behind Nico again like nothing ever happened. She’s using a comb to part sections into Nico’s hair when Percy speaks up again. 

“So, how did you figure out you were a lesbian?” Percy is back to sitting in the tub, this time with Leo leaning against him in a half-cuddle that looks strangely comfortable. 

“I don’t know. How did you figure out you were bisexual?” Piper tries to counter, sassing him, but it backfires.

“Boys are hot. That’s how I found out,” Percy sasses right back, laughing. 

Piper huffs, pinning the sections she created in Nico’s hair apart. “Okay, well, that’s not fair. Because it was definitely more complicated for me than that.” 

“It was more complicated for me, too,” Nico whispers into the space between him and the wall. Will nods in agreement in his peripherals. 

“It wasn’t as long of a journey for me to realize I was bisexual, but it took me forever to decide on a label,” Will says. 

“There’s… more?” Leo’s eyes widen in concern. “It’s not something you just know ? Like, you can’t just picture people naked and figure it out?” He’s being dumb on purpose, by the end, if the purse to his lips or the twinkle in his eyes are to be believed. Unfortunately looking like himself again. 

They all turn and give Leo the stink eye at that. 

“Shit, my bad—” Leo laughs, used to being on the receiving end of his friends’ exasperation. “I mean, when I picture dick I definitely don’t—”

“Nobody asked, Leo,” Nico interrupts, laughter rings out from his friends. Risking ruining Piper’s sectioning work, Nico turns and looks at Piper from the corner of his eye. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

She smiles back at him, grateful.

“No it’s cool, I just… might not have all the answers.” She shrugs. “At first I thought I was bi, or pan, or whatever. Because, don’t get me wrong, I definitely found Jason attractive.” Everyone in the room nods except for Calypso, making affirmative noises. The matching reactions make them all stop and look at one another. Piper looks at her friends incredulously. “Okay, first my mom calls him the hottest of all of us and now you guys?! Was anyone not ogling my boyfriend?” No one answers— they burst into rambunctious laughter. 

“I hate you all. I hope he’s listening right now.” She sounds annoyed, but her wide smile betrays her. “ Anyways —” Piper says after they’ve finally stopped cackling amongst themselves. “Like I was saying, I didn’t want to say I was a lesbian because I was attracted to Jason. But then I realized… I’ve literally never been attracted to any other guy like that? And I totally would not put it past Hera to mess with my sexuality to make her little plan work.” 

Percy makes a gagging noise at the mention of Hera, which earns him a playful smack and laugh from Annabeth. 

“My thoughts exactly, Percy.” Piper finally picks up the scissors, examining the section in her hand. Once she deems it worthy, she sets to cutting. Nico holds onto the toilet seat for dear life, porcelain cold and slidey under his sweaty palms. This is fine, this is fine. A little warning would have been nice but this is fine. No one else seems to find the occasion nearly as momentous, all eyes on Piper as she talks. 

“But I decided that even if I do like men, I won’t be dating any other guys. If there was going to be a man for me, it would have been Jason, you know?” She cuts another chunk off of Nico’s hair, lets down a new section, and starts the process all over again. “Maybe that’s silly? But I’ve decided that lesbian feels right. At least for now. So…”

They all nod, giving Piper’s statement room to breathe. Nico flinches as a large piece of his hair falls onto the floor next to his foot. Will’s hand connects with his shoulder, leaving a little squeeze. Nico can’t turn to look at him, but he moves his eyes as far as he can and gives him a shaky smile, hoping that Will can see it. 

“So, Jason knew?” Leo asks, still curled up against Percy, who has started using Leo’s head as a chin-rest. 

“He knew I was questioning my sexuality. We were already going to break up, though. The whole Hera forced us to be together thing was really getting to me.” Piper is doing something weird with the scissors, holding them straight up to Nico’s hair and cutting away randomly at the ends. He wants to ask what she’s doing, but he’s shaking, and he isn’t sure his voice will be steady if he asks. Trying to catch Will’s gaze, he taps at Will’s hand on his shoulder. Will leans into his space as Piper and the others continue to chat, moving so Nico can look him in the eyes without ruining Piper’s work. 

“What’s up?” he whispers. 

“A lot,” Nico whispers back. A lot of hair. A lot of noise. Overwhelming. He lays his hand against Will’s, lets him feel the gentle shake, and hopes he gets the idea. 

Will nods, determination in his blue eyes, and leans back out of Nico’s vision. 

“What does cutting like that do?” Will interrupts whatever random conversation started up in the wake of Piper coming out for a second time. She’s still doing random little cuts with the tips of the scissors. 

“It gives the hair texture! I do mine with a razor, but I don’t have any here at my dad’s place. This works too, just takes longer.” 

Nico breathes a sigh of relief. Being in on what’s happening to him helps immensely. Thank Apollo that Will can read his mind. 

“It’ll still be pretty long overall. Nico wanted to be able to pull it back.” Piper wraps her hand around the sections she has cut so far, testing to make sure it’ll all still reach. 

“Okay, Nico!” Annabeth speaks up for the first time in a while, grinning and knocking her knees against Nico’s. “I could see you rocking the ponytail.” She nods, picturing it as she looks Nico up and down. Nico can’t stop himself from blushing. 

“Ah, thanks,” he laughs awkwardly, trying and failing to look at her properly because of how he’s straddling the toilet. 

The conversation turns elsewhere, and Nico’s nerves mellow out. Will takes to playing with Nico’s fingers where they sit on the toilet lid, picking them up and dropping them to hear the clinking noise his rings make against porcelain. It could be five minutes or an hour, Nico isn’t sure, but Piper finally taps Nico on the shoulder. 

“Is it done?” He asks, turning around with excitement. 

“Not quite! I have to get the front.” Piper motions for him to spin around, gesturing to his bangs. Oops. Nico forgot about those. It would definitely be weird if she cut the rest of his hair and left those. 

Facing her is strange. Like this, Nico can tell what she’s doing far better. She takes most of the sides off, cutting up almost to his ears. And then Nico is pretty sure she gives him bangs . Not the kind that get pushed to the side bangs. She does it so fast he doesn’t get a moment to protest. 

There’s more of that strange cutting method that apparently adds texture, and then she’s taking a step back and admiring her handiwork. “Who wants to go grab Nico a different shirt that isn’t covered in hair?” Thank the gods Piper let him borrow one of her pajama shirts, because when she says that Nico looks down he realizes he is, indeed, covered in little pieces of hair. He hates it. 

“Actually, uh, can I shower?” Nico stares at all the little flecks settled on his arms and shirt and now that he’s looking at them he’s positive he can feel every single one. Tiny pinpricks of death.

“Only if you let me blow-dry your hair afterwards. And pick your outfit.” Piper crosses her arms, expecting a challenge. Nico does not give her one. He wants this hair off of him yesterday .

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Nico stands and the feeling of hair falling off of his skin gives him the heebie jeebies. 

“And no peeking!” Piper shouts as everyone files out of the bathroom. Nico deliberately does not look any of them in the eyes. He wants to decide for himself if he likes it. He doesn’t want to know what they think.

One very thorough shower later, Nico is pulling the tags off of fresh clothes from their giant Walmart haul and changing into them. Nico sends another mental thank-you to his dad for the unlimited credit card. He already mentally thanked Hades about four hundred times while they were checking out. Technically, it’s for emergencies only, but Nico knows Hades doesn’t check. Or care, for that matter.

Nowadays, Nico forgets he even has it. Now that he has everything he needs at camp for free, the need to use it rarely arises. It was very useful when he was on the run, doing his father’s bidding. Mortals have to pay for things to stay alive, apparently.

Piper's laid out a pair of black cargo pants (lots of pockets, exactly how Will likes them) and a white t-shirt with an Avenged Sevenfold logo to go under a cat-skeleton patterned button-down. Nico barely remembers trying any of this on— they really did buy so much. His ratty black combat boots are there, and Piper even threw in some of the random accessories she picked out for Nico to try. He puts his camp necklace on first, but decides to try on the chain necklace laying in the pile before sliding his rings into place.

On his way out of the bathroom, Nico avoids the hazy mirror, and makes his way back to Piper’s room. 

He doesn’t make it very far. 

The second he’s in the hallway, Piper descends on him and ushers him right back inside the moist, foggy bathroom.

“Oh, no. Everyone is getting the full reveal,” she says, plugging in her hair-drier and immediately sets to work. Thank the gods she left the door cracked, because Nico is sure he’d be drenched in sweat from the humidity and the heat of the drier by now if it wasn’t. She’s futzing with his hair when Nico looks up and Piper looks down, and in the second they make eye contact, Piper winks. “ You look good,” She mouths, not bothering to speak over the drier. Nico’s cheeks go hotter than the hair drier, so bright red he can feel the blood as it rushes upwards to his face. And he smiles.

Piper marches Nico back to her room with her hands on his shoulders. They pause at the door. “Ready?” She asks Nico.

“Sure,” he says, because he’s confident like that.

Piper pushes the door open. 

His eyes go straight to Will, who audibly gasps and turns a matching crimson to the color Nico can only assume his own cheeks are. His boyfriend glows bright . Not the low yellow glow of embarrassment or the flickering glow of happiness, but lightbulb levels of white. Nico has to look away to avoid getting spots in his vision.

Percy is staring, mouth wide open, and Leo is nodding appraisingly, a smirk on his face that Nico finds abhorrent. Annabeth’s eyes are fond, a wide smile and joy crinkling the edges of her eyes. Calypso looks happy for him. Which is fine, they don’t really know each other like that. But they’re all getting kind of hard to see because Will is getting brighter . 

“Earth to Will? You’re going to make us all go blind!” Piper laughs loud, lifting her hands from Nico’s shoulders to wave them in front of Will’s face. “I’d like for Nico to actually be able to see himself in the mirror.” 

“Sorry!” Will squeaks, and has to close his eyes to concentrate entirely on lowering his glow. 

“Don’t shit yourself, dude,” Leo says to Will’s left. “You gotta unclench.” 

Will wants to have a comeback, but he’s too busy fighting against his own powers, so all that comes out of his open mouth is a garbled mess. Not exactly convincing evidence that he won’t shit himself.

“Your turn!” Piper says to Nico, and suddenly he’s standing in front of Piper’s full length mirror. He wasn’t ready—! Oh. Oh… He looks— He looks— wow .

Whatever wolf cut means, if that’s what Nico has, he’ll be keeping it for a very long time. It reaches just past his shoulders at the end, shorter in the front and choppy all around. It's almost a more masculine, more mullet-y version of what Piper has. It frames his face and frees up his eyes, the random texture no longer a problem with messiness clearly being the goal of the haircut. The clothes fit great, and the new studded belt and wallet chain, despite being cheap quality, make him look… dare Nico even say… hot ? Is that something he’s allowed to say about himself?

Nico is used to seeing other things in the mirror. Bianca, his mother, his father, his younger self— he can’t escape seeing the past in the way he holds himself, in the way he looks. Choppy long hair that tricks him into seeing Bianca. Warm skin and lumpy nose that hold the traces of his mother. Judgmental obsidian eyes and terrifying smile meant to inspire fear like his father. His sharp jaw and sunken cheeks permanent reminders of his younger self.

But this Nico, the one looking back at him…  Nico takes in his styled hair, his small happy smile, his old-worn boots, his new clothes. And Nico thinks, for the first time in a long time: That’s me.  

Chapter Text

Getting s'mores supplies was the move. It’s the night before the rest of them leave Piper and Leo in Oklahoma, and Nico can genuinely say he’s having a great time. His heart feels lighter, his head clearer. His friends are bathed in the light of the fire, laughing and joking, their voices echoing into the trees. It’s warm, homey. Nico knows he’ll be looking back at the last couple of days fondly. 

As emotional and tumultuous as this week was, Will was right. Nico needed this. And he’s proud of himself for seeing this through. All the worrying he did that this would make things worse, that his friends wouldn’t be grieving as much as him, that something would go wrong— it settles in Nico’s stomach. Everything is okay. Jason is dead, that hasn’t changed, but Nico can say with confidence that his friendships certainly have changed. 

Before, Nico thought of the Argo II crew as obligatory friends. People with a shared goal and interest. People he’d like to see continue to live and be happy. Nothing more, nothing less. But then he reconciled with Percy and Annabeth. And found solace in Piper. And, Hells, he’s even grown fond of Leo’s terrible sense of humor and Calypso’s calming presence. Nico would like to think they tolerate him back. Real friends.

Jason would be proud of him. 

Speaking of Jason, they’re talking about him tonight. All smiles and teary eyes as they recount their favorite stories of him over sticky bites of s’mores. 

“—And then he apologized for apologizing, ” Leo laughs, stuffing his face with burnt marshmallow. He doesn’t bother with holding it over the fire, burns it with flames straight from his fingertips instead. He skips the chocolate and cracker steps too— shoves the whole crispy marshmallow right into his mouth and talks around its molten texture. 

“That sounds like him,” Percy says. Nostalgia is an expression that fits perfectly on the other boy’s face. A mellowed out version of his usual smirk, round and warm. It makes Percy look older, and whole deal more like his mother. 

Nico stays silent for the conversation. His favorite memories of Jason are… personal. Jason putting himself between Nico and Cupid, Jason’s kind words and kinder actions afterwards. Jason’s lack of hesitation, from that point on, always ready to trust the son of Hades. A feeling that took Nico far too long to wrap his head around. 

Nico was used to being questioned, challenged at every turn. A threat. A ticking time bomb.  Not  cared for . Not  understood .  Which, as Nico has tried to emphasize to his new friends, wasn’t their fault. He didn’t exactly give them any good reasons to trust him, as a kid. It’s just that… Jason was the first person who even bothered to try despite it all. Who looked at him with something other than pity or guilt, something other than a sense of duty. Who included Nico because he wanted to, not because he had to.

“What about you, Nico? Have a favorite memory?” Piper asks, startling Nico out of his thinking. Will’s fingers brush encouragingly over his cold knuckles, the arms of their lawn chairs tangled together so they can sit as close as possible. 

Nico hesitates. Not because he doesn’t know what his favorite memory of Jason is, but because he was just thinking about how those are private memories. Things for him to remember, things that Jason never shared. 

And yet… Nico finds himself considering telling everyone here and now what happened in Split that made him and Jason so close. A story Jason kept from even his girlfriend, out of respect for Nico’s privacy. And Percy is sitting right there … It’s so tempting to say it. 

Nico flips through a million other memories in his head, stories he could lie are his favorite and get away with, no questions asked. But none of them feel right . None of them do what Jason meant to him justice.

“Jason was the first person I came out to,” Nico says. Nico can’t deny that it’s satisfying to see the shock on their faces. Everyone except for Piper goes wide-eyed. This part, Piper knew. What she doesn’t know is— “When we went on that mission together. In Split.” Annabeth and Percy were in Tartarus for that, but Leo and Piper must remember the mission they sent Jason and Nico on, because the shock on Leo’s face grows and Piper looks rattled. 

“Split? He knew since Split? That’s what happened…?” Piper doesn’t finish her sentence. Nico has no doubt she suspected something was up the moment they returned. Even Nico could tell Jason was treating him differently. At first, Nico thought it was a bad thing. He couldn’t figure out why Jason was being so nice to him. There had to be something Nico was missing… 

And then, somewhere along the way, Nico realized that the difference was friendship. Jason wanted to be his friend. Not despite what he had learned about Nico, but in part because of it.

“We met Cupid.” Nico forces himself to continue talking, looking at Will for support. His boyfriend has heard the story. Nico’s ashamed to admit he didn’t tell Will until after Jason’s death. There was no reason to, before. But after… Nico needed someone to see Jason the way he saw him. Told Will over mugs of hot cocoa, curled up close under piles of blankets long after curfew in the Cabin 13. Laughed so hard he cried when Will showed up the next day with a handful of small Cupid statues from the Big House’s Valentine’s Day decoration stash to smash. Lou Ellen walked up on them stomping the statues into the ground in the middle of the woods, out collecting spell components, and didn’t hesitate to join. What a great day. 

“You met, like, actual tiny wings and heart arrows Cupid?” Percy asks, eyebrows raised. He’s joking, but only kind of. There’s a wariness to his expression. Percy knows first hand that the silliest or most harmless seeming gods are usually the cruelest. 

“I think I would have preferred that, actually,” Nico tries to joke, a sad laugh escaping as he imagines the fight all over again but with a tiny cherub instead of the intimidating, beautiful god Cupid was. Nico pulls his legs up onto the lawn chair to tuck his chin into his knees, letting go of Will’s hand to grip Will’s forearm instead. Something closer, something more grounding. “But Eros, or Cupid, whatever , wouldn’t give us the scepter we needed unless I…” Nico’s face heats up with residual shame. It’s not festering, not deep rooted like it used to be, but the ghost of what he used to feel whenever he thought of Percy rises fierce and blotchy up the length of his neck. 

“Unless you…?” Leo looks worried. Percy looks more worried. Like if the next words out of Nico’s mouth involve any physical harm he might summon Cupid right here, right now, and fight him to the death. Nico wouldn’t put it past him to try.

“I had to tell Jason that I was in love with Percy. I had to face Cupid, face Love.” At Nico’s admission, Percy visibly relaxes. A strange reaction, in Nico’s opinion, but he doesn’t get to dwell on it long because Annabeth speaks up.

“Cupid made you, a kid , come out to another guy you barely knew? Gods and their stupid conditions for quests… that’s messed up. What a weirdo.” She scrunches her face up with distaste, red hot anger dancing across her face in the firelight.

“I think it was more about admitting it to myself? Jason just happened to be there.” Nico laughs, far more genuine this time. He still remembers the furrow to Jason’s brow and the kindness in his eyes when he told Nico that everyone would support him, if they knew. Nico wonders how Jason knew that with such certainty. And how lucky he is that it turned out to be true. 

“Jason wasn’t even surprised when I said it. I was a little offended!” Nico says. It was a very underlying thought, buried underneath the embarrassment and self-loathing at the time, but it was still there. He would lay awake at night and replay the mission in his head— his words to Cupid, Jason’s words to him. And he would fleetingly think: I spend years hating myself and convincing myself I’m made wrong and the first person I come out to, a very normal straight guy who has everything going for him, doesn’t even bat an eye? 

They all laugh, especially Percy, and Nico’s heart warms. He has to tell them—

“Jason told me I was brave. And he said if any of you found out, I’d have that many more people to back me up, and to unleash the fury of the gods on anybody who gives me trouble.” Nico impersonates Jason’s deep voice, a small but happy smile stretching across his face with the memory. 

“And he was right,” Percy says. Nico was expecting Piper to say it, or even Annabeth, but hearing it from Percy— Nico smiles wider, the happiness reaching his eyes, and he leans over his own lawn chair and into Will’s to settle against his boyfriend’s shoulder. 

“Yeah. He was, wasn’t he?” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

It’s raining when they wake up the next morning. 

“Everybody sure they have everything ?” Piper asks, scanning the living room one last time. Leo is standing on his tiptoes to wrap a short arm around her shoulder. It’s weird that they’re leaving him behind — who’s going to entertain Percy for the drive back to Indianapolis? 

“We should! I already double checked all the bedrooms and Nico and Will’s stuff stayed out here, so,” Annabeth says. She’s standing to Piper’s other side , holding her hand. It’s clear neither girl wants to let go and bring an end to their stay— but Annabeth has college classes to attend. And Piper has to finish her senior year of high school. 

Thunder rumbles in the distance.

“We better get going before it starts to pour,” Percy says gently, rubbing Annabeth’s arm, trying to get her attention and soothe her in equal measure. 

“I don’t want to.” Annabeth’s voice breaks, teary-eyed. Piper shirks Leo’s arm off of her shoulders to pull Annabeth into a crushing hug. 

“We’ll Iris Message every night! And I’ll come visit once a month, just like I promised. We all will!” Piper looks at Leo who looks at Calypso and they all nod. 

“Good. Okay, yeah. I’ll see you soon!” Annabeth wipes the tears from her eyes, pulls back, hesitates, and then pulls Piper right back in for one more hug. “And I better get a text every time you meet a hot girl.”

Piper laughs, loud and clear and full of genuine happiness. “Yes ma’am!” 

“Me too! I want in on that,” Leo butts in.

“And me!” Percy smirks from his spot behind Annabeth.

“Fine! I’ll make a group chat!” Piper laughs, flicking open her phone. “Will? Nico? Do you two want in?”

Both boys blink back at her. 

“We don’t have cell phones…” Will laughs, like he’s only now realizing this. 

“...What’s a cellphone?”

“Okay now you’re messing with me!” Will turns to push an accusatory finger against Nico’s chest and their friends dissolve into laughter. 

It turns out Nico was only slightly messing with Will. As they pile into Sally Jackson’s minivan, waving their goodbyes as Percy backs out of Piper’s driveway, Will is still insisting Nico knows more about phones than he’s letting on. Nico can only giggle along to his boyfriend’s adorable rambling. He neither confirms nor denies any of Will’s arguments.  

Thank Poseidon for Percy’s water powers, because otherwise they’d all be sitting sopping wet for the long drive back to Indianapolis after loading their suitcases in the rain. All it takes is a pat on the shoulder for everyone to be dry-as-new, Percy dissipating the water soaked into their clothes. 

Nico and Will are in the back again. Calypso claimed the middle row for herself and is making light conversation with Annabeth. Nico’s mountains of new clothing and Percy and Annabeth’s apartment purchases take up more space in the trunk than Leo’s giant suitcase did, and it makes Nico feel as though they left something important behind. Something 5’6” with dark curly hair and an incredibly loud and obnoxious mouth. 

However, Leo gets another week of Piper time while the rest of them return to their regularly scheduled programming. 

Half an hour in, Nico’s eyes start to droop. Rain patters against the tiny car window in the third row. With all the extra things in the trunk, Will’s backpack and Jason’s sword— still wrapped in Nico’s t-shirt— are in the third row with them. Nico has to carefully arrange his limbs so he can lay against the side of the car and gingerly rest his left leg against the covered part of the sword.

“Taking a nap?” Will leans into Nico’s space and whispers.

“Mhm,” Nico mumbles back, wrapping his arms around himself, trying to keep warm in the cold blast of the car AC. Without sunlight beaming through the untinted windows, it’s as chilly in the minivan as it is outside. 

“C’mere?” Will asks, opening his arms for Nico to lay against him, instead. Will’s chest and shoulder are far more comfortable than the unforgiving press of the plastic car siding. Nico grumbles his approval, buries his face against the warmth of Will’s shirt, and wraps his arms around the other boy. 

“G’night,” is all he manages to say before he’s out cold. 

And when Nico comes to again, he’s squished between the sleeping form of himself and the wall. Nico can’t help but marvel at how peaceful he looks, cheek mashed against the ball of Will’s shoulder. Will’s asleep, too— eyes closed and fluttering as he uses his dense gold curls as a pillow where he leans on the top of Nico’s head. It takes Nico far too long to register he shouldn’t be capable of looking at himself like this, an outside observer… oh. This is a dream.

Nico looks around, hoping to figure out why he’s here.

Calypso has also fallen asleep, head resting against the cold window. It’s pouring outside. Dense black and gray clouds block the midday sky in favor of dumping water onto the ground, heavy and fast. It’s hard to see past the second row of the car. In the driver’s seat, Percy is a hazy figure— as though he were painted with smearing oils instead of sitting a few feet away. Annabeth, too. The silhouette of her pushes and pulls in colorful streaks as she holds her book to the side and turns like she’s talking to Percy, but Nico can’t hear a thing. The only thing he can hear is the harsh storm and Will’s light snores. 

“So we finally meet, Nico di Angelo.”

If this weren’t a dream, Nico would have jumped out of his skin. He whips his gaze to where the voice came from. How did he not notice her before? 

Sitting in the right seat in the second row, next to Calypso, is clearly a goddess. 

Long, silken black hair flows around her and down past her waist, pooling on the seat and yet perfectly tamed, not a hair out of place. A golden crown, regal in its craftsmanship and lack of showiness, sits upon her head. A sheer black veil, embroidered with feather designs, hangs from the crown, covering her face. Sharp cheekbones and a pointy chin are the only things visible from beneath it. An elegant black dress, fabric bunched and tapered in a definitively Greek silhouette, flows around her in paint strokes. A belt of peacock feathers cinches her at the waist, cuffs and jingling bracelets drown her arms in gold. 

She is usually described as wearing white , and Nico has never heard of her having her face covered, but the peacock feathers give her away. 

The Queen of the Gods.

“Queen Hera,” Nico says, breathless. Even twisted to look at Nico from the second row of Sally Jackson’s minivan, she manages to look graceful. She folds her hands in her lap before she speaks, sharp blue fingernails digging ever-so slightly into the fabric of her dress. 

“Your reputation precedes you, son of Hades. My Jason was rather fond of you. Let us hope his judgments of character were correct.” Her head tilts slightly to the left. The shadow of an eyebrow raises under her black veil. 

Nico is lost for words. He blinks back at the goddess, sweating in the metaphysical world. 

“Is there something you needed from me, Queen Hera?” Nico swallows, throat dry as the desert. He sure hopes she doesn’t need something from him. Maybe she’s here to give her condolences about Jason’s death and then go. That would be uncomfortable, but preferable to the millions of other reasons she could be here.

“You have something of mine, young boy,” Hera says, raising a sharp finger to point towards Nico’s sleeping form to his left. Or, actually, a little lower— Jason’s sword. A gift from Juno. A sliver of Nico’s jeans have ridden up, and in his sleep he has nudged the shirt covering the gladius aside just barely so that the outside of his ankle brushes up against Imperial Gold.

Oh. Oops.

“You can have it back—” Nico rushes to say, but gets cut off.

“I don’t want it back. It was a gift to Jason. A sign of my blessing. And it would still belong to Jason, if my husband wasn’t such a fool and an idiot—” Her snarl curls into something dangerous . Lightning cracks across the sky, stinging Nico’s vision white. Fear curls hot in Nico’s stomach and he has to blink back visages of the crumbling hotel in Italy. 

A warning shot. Hera takes a moment to compose herself. 

“Listen to me, Nico di Angelo. I will not tell you twice.” Nico can't see her eyes beyond the black mesh of her mourning veil— the kind little old ladies used to wear to funerals in Nico’s childhood. It's making him nervous.

“I do not have any demigod children of my own. But Jason— Jason was mine . Jupiter gave him to me . And then, in my only demigod’s time of need, he abandoned the pleas of his own son to spite me . He went so far as to change the boy’s useless sister into a tree to save her, but wouldn’t spare a stray lightning bolt for my perfect champion.” Hera’s tone is sharp, serrating— a viper poised to strike, waiting for the right prey to cross its path. “The man won’t even mourn with me. And I will not stand for it. He is so fond of giving out lessons to learn, these days— casting down Apollo as a mortal, making him right his wrongs. I wish to teach Jupiter a lesson of his own. Jupiter thinks he may choose the ending to my champion’s story, but you are going to help me fix that.”

It is not a question. It demands no answer. Hera expects Nico’s compliance, no room for bargaining. 

“I— I don’t understand. How am I going to help you with that?” Nico at least wants to know what he’s getting himself into. Needs to be sure of what she means.

“Oh, son of Hades. You already know. In fact, I think you’d do it even without my insistence. I’m only here to make sure it happens.” 

Nico sees more than he feels the minivan come to a screeching halt. Percy and Annabeth scramble for their car door handles, their visages thick as molasses in the murky peripherals of Nico’s dream. They’re yelling, warped and warbling like they’re shouting underwater. 

“I am counting on you, Nico di Angelo. Prove Jason was right about you, or there will be grave consequences on Olympus.” 

Nico wakes up in his own body, and immediately yanks his foot away from the exposed metal of Jason’s sword. He has to get a sheath made—

“Everybody wake up!” Percy is shaking Calypso awake, leaning into the third row as he does to yell in Nico and Will’s faces. It’s a mad dash to untangle themselves and climb over the seats to get out of the minivan and see what Annabeth and Percy’s panic is about. 

They’ve pulled into the ditch of a two lane road in the middle of nowhere, each side lined with untamed forest— tall grass and old trees that quickly fade into black without the sun to illuminate it. The grass is mud beneath their shoes as rain pours down around them. Cold October air seeps into Nico’s bones and clings to the water on his skin, freezing him through to the core. 

But it’s not the road that’s the problem. Or the mud, or the rain, or the cold— though Percy is definitely going to have a hard time getting the minivan out of this ditch.

In the middle of the road is a gigantic looming figure made of roiling storm clouds and swirling rain. Dense in the center, the form of a creature looms three times the size of any human. Nico recognizes it instantly from the Battle of Manhattan— from the feeling of dread that pulls at his stomach and the sharp feeling of his own electrons trying to join in on the monster’s wrath. 

“...Leroy?” Percy holds a hand over his eyes, squinting into the wind. That’s not what Nico was thinking. Who the Hades is Leroy?

“Typhon?!” Annabeth yells over the sound of wind whipping around them. Okay, that’s what Nico was thinking. “What the hell?! Didn’t we defeat this guy, like, two years ago?” 

A grating laugh rings out in the wind, carried by the leaves falling off of pine trees and the earth rumbling with thunder. 

Oh, but I am not that Typhon, little one. A deep, booming voice vibrates the inside of Nico’s skull, where Nico prefers only his own inner voice and brain matter reside. 

I am the Son of Hera and Titans, Borne of Anger, Seeker of Revenge. The Father of All Monsters, the Bane of Zeus. And I am here for the one who reeks of death.

Nico can only assume that means him. There’s really no better way Typhon could have put it without saying Nico’s name outright. 

“How is this possible?! Aren’t the Doors of Death closed?” Calypso shouts, incredulous, shielding herself from the ever-increasing wind. Raindrops slash sideways against them, tiny bullets propelled by Typhon’s storm. 

“I don’t know, but let's be grateful he seems less powerful like this! As far as I’m aware, we sent this guy back to…” Annabeth hesitates. Can’t bring herself to say its name. Typhon’s father from the original myth. A place Percy, Annabeth, Will, and Nico have all seen. The trees of the surrounding forest groan as the wind howls through them, as though Typhon is trying to will them to speak the name Annabeth refuses to say. Branches scream against the onslaught. 

“During the Battle of Manhattan!” Will says. “I remember that!” 

“Well, looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands! Everyone ready?” Percy squares his shoulders, shuffles almost imperceptibly closer to Annabeth who has her dagger at the ready. Calypso wields a small hunting knife in her off hand— her right hand raised in preparation to cast spells. Nico calls his own sword to him through the shadows, pulling it from where it was left in the car and into his hand on muscle memory alone, as automatic as breathing. 

“I don’t have a weapon!” Will shouts, looking around nervously. There’s not much his powers can do here. The sun is nowhere to be seen. Shooting any light beams will exhaust him immediately, as it did in Tartarus, which is no good if they need him for any emergency healing. He could hide, but there’s no guarantee Typhon couldn’t go after all of them at once— Typhon is a primordial. There’s no telling what this being is capable of, regardless of if it seems weaker than the form they’ve seen before. 

After Tartarus Part Two, Electric Boogaloo, Nico and Will discussed Will getting an actual weapon in great detail. It wouldn’t do Will any harm to have something on him, just in case. And yet, here they are, in the same situation all over again.

In a moment of clarity or madness, Nico turns to look at his boyfriend and says— “Jason’s gladius. It’s in the backseat.” 

“Oh, you’re so smart!” Will leans in for the fastest kiss to ever occur, and goes sprinting back towards the Jacksons’ minivan. 

Do not bother, little half gods. Hera’s rage has awakened me. And I will stop at nothing to finish what I was born to do.

Eyes made of lightning flicker into existence at the center of Typhon’s storm, still a hundred feet away.  

“Which was?” Annabeth stalls for time, creeping forward with her dagger in hand. If there’s one thing demigods know, it’s that gods and titans and primordials share one thing in common: they love to monologue. Annabeth keeps her composure despite flicking her eyes between Typhon and Will’s half-visible figure digging through the backseat. 

Hera brought me into this world to overthrow Zeus. I will not fail a second time.

A hand of swirling clouds and crackling lightning lashes out at them. The four of them have to jump and scatter to avoid it, sending them ducking into the tree line or rolling into the center of the road. The residual showering sparks of electricity fall down around them with the rain. 

Typhon’s laugh reverberates across the pavement. Nico’s veins turn to ice and his insides threaten to make an emergency escape. He landed in a puddle when he jumped, drenched in glopping soil. He pushes himself up on an already-scraped elbow, pushing sopping wet bangs aside on his forehead. Nico can’t imagine he’d be able to see very much during this fight if Piper didn’t cut his hair.

“I don’t see why you need me for that!” Nico shouts, stumbling to his feat. He raises his sword, hoping to keep the primordial’s attention. Out of the corner of his eyes, Nico sees Will. Blond, radiant, Will— Imperial Gold gleaming with light in his hands and running back towards their group to join the battle. The sight of Jason’s sword between the red and freckled fingers of his boyfriend makes Nico’s heart clench.

You are going to get in the way. I do not want peace. I do not want balance.

Thunder shatters Nico’s eardrums as Typhon brings another limb down, directly on top of him this time. He has to jump shadows a short distance to move out of the way fast enough, distracted as he was looking at Will.

I want justice.

Percy appears to Nico’s right. “Nobody knows what you’re talking about, Leroy!” 

The older boy runs headlong towards Typhon, Riptide uncapped. He crosses a hundred feet in the blink of an eye, unbothered by the rain. Actually, he looks bolstered . Rain rolls off of Percy’s skin like he’s impervious to the stuff, black hair soaked through and sticking to his forehead like it was deliberately placed there. His skin looks healthier under the touch of the water, his eyes gleaming with the raging storm. The bronze of Riptide shines like a beacon in the downpour. 

Only a demigod like Percy Jackson would run straight towards a storm to fight it with a sword. Typhon barely has a body, condensed clouds and rain forming a vaguely humanoid shape at the eye of the storm. Arms and legs appear and disappear with the ever-expanding cyclone. 

Percy’s first strike misses. His second cleaves through heavy black rain clouds that stitch themselves right back together. His third catches the edges of a lightning bolt and sends sparks flying inside of Typhon’s guts.

Nico runs after him. 

Stygian iron stings primordials far more than celestial bronze ever could. At Nico’s first slash, a section of cloud severs and disappears into a puff of mist. Typhon bellows, a searing thing that resounds through the entire forest. Annabeth takes up his left, ducking in close for precise strikes at any limbs that attempt to form. A wall of water knocks Nico back, but a shout from Calypso tells him it’s her magic that keeps him upright, a gust of wind of equal force pushing him back into place. 

Their slashing and prodding must annoy Typhon enough that he ups his game, because vine-like appendages whip out— long tendrils of lashing water and mist. 

Zeus must fall.

Five tendrils strike at once, one for each of them, lightning fast. Percy holds up an arm and the water crashes against an invisible shield, leaving the tendril weakened and easy to slash. Annabeth ducks and rolls like she saw it coming from the moment Typhon thought it, sticking her dagger up into the limb as it rushes past. Calypso gasps in fear and throws her hands up, dagger falling from her grasp, and a sheet of rock unearths itself from the ground to follow her hand’s movement— the tendril crumbles at the impact. Will— not nearly as prepared— screams and a strobe of light flashes to connect with the appendage. The noise they make as lightning meets pure light is nuclear. And Will drops like a sack of potatoes from the effort.

“Will!” Nico screams, moving to rush towards his boyfriend and forgetting he had a tendril of his own— it slams into his back and sends him flying across the road, away from his friends. The energy of Typhon’s storm is channeled into its remaining arm— his center mass shrinking as the limb winding around Nico grows. The wind howls so loud Nico can’t hear himself think. Lightning crackles to life and shoots out inches from his face. He can’t see past the whipping rain to his friends. The air is so pressurized, so unsteady, that Nico can’t raise his sword arm. It hangs, useless, to the side, struggling to prevent his sword from being ripped from his grasp. 

Trapped. Nico is trapped.

His feet lift off of the ground. The air seizes in his lungs. There’s no extra oxygen to suck down into breaths, or maybe there’s too much . Nico starts to choke. Black spots dance in the corners of his vision. He reaches for the shadows, for something, anything — but nothing responds. There are no shadows in Typhon’s storm, only unnatural darkness.

Give up. Let Olympus crumble. 

Tears form in Nico’s eyes, water flying from his face to join the surrounding cyclone. He’s not sure how much longer he can hold his breath.

Beyond the storm, gold gleams. 

Golden hair, an Imperial Gold sword, bright blue eyes— for a second Nico thinks he’s dead and it’s Jason. And then the sword swings from below at the storm surrounding Nico. 

It severs the limb, and Nico drops to the ground on his back. Without the pounding rain in his eardrums, he hears Percy yelling, Calypso whistling for Typhon’s attention, Annabeth shouting commands— but he’s not listening to any of it. Nico’s too busy looking up at Will standing over him. Panting, clutching Jason’s sword in his shaking hands, eyes wild and looking down at Nico from above. 

Will looks… older? Jaw a tad squarer, eyes less innocently round, shoulders squared in a new way. His bright curls are matted to his forehead from the rain, wet shirt clinging to years of a decent training schedule worth of muscles. 

“Are you okay?” Will crouches down, breaking the spell. He grabs at Nico’s wrist to check his vital signs. 

Nico definitely does not cough up rain water before he can respond.

“Fine—” Nico croaks out, rolling onto his stomach to continue his coughing fit into the ground. 

Will pats Nico’s back as he hacks up a bathtub’s worth of water (or, at least, what feels like a bathtub’s worth of water). From the sounds of it, Percy, Annabeth, and Calypso have things under control. There are a lot of directions happening, not a lot of screams of pain or fear. 

When the water finally releases Nico’s lungs from its clutches, Nico makes to stand up. Will grabs him under the armpits and helps haul him upright, both of them staggering as Nico settles on his own two feet again. 

They make eye contact and— okay, maybe it’s that Nico isn’t used to seeing Will holding a sword soaking wet with a busted lip, but Will really does look… older was the wrong word earlier. More mature? Stronger? Nico can’t put his finger on it. 

He doesn’t get a chance to figure it out. Annabeth shouts and they both whip around to look. Percy has Riptide stuck into Typhon’s center, dangling and holding on for dear life as Riptide slowly slips inch by inch, revealing golden ichor underneath. 

The pair sprint towards their friends. Bands of rain and fierce strikes of lightning thrash at Percy, attempting to throw him off. 

“Keep holding on!” Calypso yells, wind of her own buffeting against Typhon’s, trying to keep Percy and his sword in place. 

“Wasn’t planning on letting go!” Percy shouts back from thirty feet in the air. 

With a confidence Nico has never seen Will exude before in battle, Will lets go of Nico’s hand and keeps running for Percy on his own. 

“Nico! Give me a lift!” Will calls over his shoulder. Again, Nico is struck by the vision of him, Jason’s golden sword in his hand like it belongs there. “I’m going to grab him!” 

Nico gets Will’s idea as he runs underneath Percy. Nico focuses on the painted asphalt beneath Typhon’s… feet? Clouds? Not important right now. He’s not as adept at this as Hazel is, but he pushes and pulls at the Earth, forcing it to split and crack with his intended purpose. A small five by five foot square. Wide enough for two people. 

As soon as Will steps over the area Nico chose, it triggers like a pressure plate, releasing from the ground and shooting up and up and up until Will is level with Percy’s swinging feet. He grabs the other boy by the legs. Nico thinks he sees Percy look down and mouth something stupid, like “Oh, hi!” Will jams his own sword into Typhon’s side and looks down at Nico. A wide smile beams across his face, glowing in the dark of the storm, as Will yells, “First floor, please!” 

Nico’s gusts twists from the effort as he forces rocks up and around Will’s ankles, sinking him into the chunk of earth with purpose, and then releases . The ground beneath them falls fast, pulling Will and Percy down with it. 

They rip Typhon open from chest to bottom. Gold dust and ichor gets swept up into the circling storm, speeding up with Typhon’s fury. 

Zeus will pay. One way or another.

BOOM. A crippling blast of thunder flattens the trees closest to them, throwing them all onto their backs. Typhon’s essence scatters into the remaining breeze— only drizzling rain and an overcast sky left behind. 

Percy and Will help each other up, Will dislodging his feet from their asphalt prison. The rest of the group makes their way over, checking one another for any grievous wounds. 

Nico clears his throat. “So, is now a bad time to say I talked to Hera during my nap?” 

—

Nico explains his not-quite-dream of queenly Hera sitting in the second row of Sally Jackson’s minivan while Percy squats by tire after tire, pulling the moisture out of the ground with his powers to un-stick their ride home.

“So, she wants revenge? For Jason’s death?” Calypso raises an eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest. This is not a pro-Hera group. Nico can tell none of them are very receptive to the idea of completing a quest on her behalf. 

“She wants to teach Jupiter a lesson,” Nico corrects. He’s not sure if throwing around the word revenge will get them in trouble, but he’s not willing to find out. “Or Zeus. I’m not sure it matters…”

“Well she can do it without you!” Will says, fidgeting with Jason’s sword. When the words leave his mouth, Jason’s sword flashes white, and Will drops it with a yelp. “Ouch! What the—” 

“I wouldn’t insult Hera with her sword in your hands.” Annabeth eyes the sword on the ground warily. Will picks it back up with just the tips of his fingers, sporting an embarrassed flush. She sighs, sitting on the edge of the wet road to bury her face in her palms. “So, Hera dropped by to make sure you’d do a thing for her that you were already going to do, but wouldn’t tell you what it was. And then Typhon , but not the original Typhon, appears out of thin air to kill you with related motives.” Annabeth’s mouth draws itself into a thin, pinched line. She drums calloused fingers on the ball of her knee.  

“Didn’t Leroy say he was working for Hera?” Percy calls from the other side of the minivan, face visible from underneath the car where it’s pressed against the dirt by the tire. Nico’s not sure what the purpose of that is— Percy doesn’t even need his hands to dry the soil, much less his cheek on the ground. 

“Who is Leroy and why do you keep saying that?” Nico asks, flabbergasted, leaning down so Percy can see his confused face from the other side. 

“It’s an inside joke about Typhon. But, like, with myself.” Percy pauses, squints. “...Okay I’m realizing that’s pretty crazy to do out loud when I’m the only one in on it—”

“You think?” Nico throws his hands up. 

“Focus!” Annabeth, per usual, forces them back on track. “Typhon didn’t say he was working for Hera. Typhon said Hera’s rage woke him up, and that he wanted justice and for Zeus to pay for his wrongdoings to Hera.”  

Will hums, rubbing his chin. His squarer chin. Is Nico losing it? “Typhon also said he was Hera’s son? I thought Typhon was born, from, you know—” Will points down . Tartarus. 

Annabeth nods. “I’m not very familiar with the primordials other than Gaea, to be honest with you. I didn’t realize Typhon had multiple aspects.” 

“I know the story,” Calypso speaks up, hesitant. Shy. She fiddles with the end of her soaked t-shirt, trying to force it into something that resembles acceptable. 

Annabeth looks surprised, but gestures to Calypso that the floor is hers. 

“I didn’t witness it myself, or anything. Sometimes, when Hephaestus dropped by Ogygia, he would bring me things to read. One of those things was an old, annotated version of the Iliad. Nothing kills hundreds of years quite like the scrawling notes of ancient Greek scholars.” Calypso rolls her eyes. She’s fidgeting with the wet ends of her fishtail braid, standing with her arms crossed. Nico wonders if Hephaestus being a frequent visitor had any sway over her love for Leo— or any sway on Leo’s inclination to find her again, unlike any of the other men who landed on her island before him. 

“The story goes that Gaea, angry that the giants were overthrown, tells Hera of Zeus’ infidelity in order to spite him. And so, in her rage, Hera begs Kronos for a child that is hers and hers alone. He gives her two eggs to plant in the ground, and tells her that the child to be born is prophesized to overthrow Zeus. When Typhon is finally born, however, Hera has already reconciled with Zeus, and so she warns him of Typhon so he can prepare, thwarting Typhon’s attack.” 

Annabeth squints at Calypso long and hard, processing this new information. 

“So, Hera— Juno— being angry with Zeus— Jupiter— you know what I mean — about Jason’s death… brought a piece of Typhon back. But you teaching Zeus a lesson for her would result in them making up, which Typhon didn’t want,” Annabeth says. Interest sparkles in her eyes. A puzzle-master cracking a code.

“I guess so…” Nico is not a fan of all this attention. He just got back from Tartarus with his boyfriend. Why do important events follow him around like flies on corpses? Chiron promised him things would be calm for the rest of their demigod lifetime.

“But I don’t understand what you have to do with that? Do you have any idea what she wants you to do?” Annabeth rubs at her dirt-caked face, thin brows furrowed. Nico keeps his eyes fixated on the ground. He can feel Will’s eyes hot on his back. Because Nico definitely knows what Hera wants him to do. But he’s not going to tell Annabeth that.

“No…” Nico pulls at the long sleeves of his shirt. He distracts himself from the guilt of not telling his friends the truth by lamenting the amount of mud currently residing in his brand new clothes. 

Percy rounds the front of the minivan, wiping dirt and grass off of his face, elbows, and knees. 

“Just be careful, okay?” Percy says. “Hera does not take well to things not going her way. And you should probably go see Rachel when you get back to camp. In case she has a prophecy for you.”

“Please, no,” Will groans, plopping himself down next to Annabeth. 

“Oh no, don’t get comfortable. The minivan is ready to go. We’ve gotta push this thing out of here!” Percy laughs.

With four demigods and an ex-Titan it’s a pretty easy feat to get their ride back onto the road. By some miracle, there haven’t been any other cars. After ensuring the hazard lights are on, Percy lines them all up to dry everyone again, and then off they go. First stop: food.

“I’m going to turn into monster dust if I don’t get a burger, stat ,” Percy says, prompting Annabeth to dig out the trusty paper map and figure out how long it’ll be until burgers are a possibility. 

Even though Percy dried them off, they’re still going to owe Sally Jackson money for a car detailing. Nico is doing his best not to rub dirt and mud all over the third row, but he’s failing spectacularly. And Will isn’t much better.

“Twenty minutes until the next town! We’ll get gas, hopefully be able to wash up in the sink at the gas station bathroom, and drive through somewhere for lunch. Does that work for everyone?” Annabeth turns around to ask the other three teens. They all nod, never one to question Annabeth Chase’s plans. 

Nico doesn’t bother to look at her when he nods, staring at the profile of Will’s face. He’s still trying to put his finger on what’s different. It’s not like he lost weight, or gained muscle— his bone structure is the same. He’s clearer , sharper around the edges. There’s a tilt to his eyebrows and a slant to his mouth that wasn’t there before. Golden light reflects off of Jason’s sword, which is resting between Will’s legs where he still hasn’t let go of the handle. It’s driving Nico more than a little bonkers. 

Is it the sword? It is his no longer bleeding but still cracked open and bruised upper lip? 

It’s on the same side as Jason’s lip scar.

He must stare for too long, because Will flicks his eyes over to meet Nico’s gaze, a teasing eyebrow raised. Nico flushes bright red, caught. 

“What?” Will leans in and whispers, still looking straight ahead, a smirk on his face. Nico takes the opportunity to look closer. Something is off. He knows it. Nico wishes he had a picture of him to hold up next to Will. 

Nico shakes his head, and Will chuckles, moving back out of Nico’s space and into his own. Warm fingers seek out Nico’s on the cloth seats. As their fingers tangle together, Nico grows more and more unsure. It sits on the tip of his tongue, waiting to come out. Is he actually going crazy? Did Hera do something to Nico’s vision? To Will ? It’s that thought that makes Nico speak up, fear that something could happen to them like what happened to Jason or Percy or Piper. Memories altered, relationships warped—

“Okay— Will looks different! Does anyone else think Will looks different? Or am I going insane,” Nico says.

Will turns to look at him, eyes wide. 

“What? What do you mean?” Will says, concerned. He brings a freckled hand up to his face, touching gently like he might come in contact with something grotesque. 

Annabeth and Calypso turn around in their seats, squinting at Will. 

“Maybe…” Calypso tilts her head to the right. Annabeth copies the action, leaning in closer from two rows in front of them. 

“You know, I noticed something was up during the fight. I thought I was seeing things… but now that you mention it…” Annabeth hums, deep in thought. That’s reassuring, at least. Annabeth being on Nico’s side immediately makes him less worried that he’s being messed with by the gods or something. 

“I—I don't feel any different?” Will exclaims, still brushing fingertips across his face like he’s going to find something new. He won’t. It’s all the same bright blue eyes, sun kissed skin, and tiny universe of freckles. And yet…

“Older?” Calypso tries.

“I was thinking square-er, but that doesn’t make any sense,” Nico says.

“If it helps, Will, I didn’t notice shit ,” Percy laughs, looking at Will in the rear-view mirror. He goes back to looking at the road when Annabeth pokes him in the ribs.

Annabeth turns back around and really gives Will a good once over. She looks him up and down, side to side, tilts her head, motions for him to tilt his. There’s a lot of humming involved and a lot of hand gestures Nico doesn’t understand. 

“Guys I really don’t think anything—” Will is interrupted when he nervously wraps his hands around Jason’s gladius and it begins to glow . The same way that Will glows. Bright and warm. Nothing like the cold shine it let off in the morning light in Nico’s grasp.

They all stare. 

“What’s going on? I feel like something important is happening but if I turn around Annabeth will yell at me!” Percy whines from the front seats, but Annabeth shushes him.

Annabeth points at the sword in Will’s grasp, unbuckles her seatbelt and crawls back to the second row without saying a word, much to Percy’s bewilderment. Percy laughs as she squishes herself down the middle of the car, playfully pushing at her when she uses his head for leverage. Nico thanks whatever god is in charge of traffic that there’s no one else around because they are definitely swerving. 

“Jason’s sword! You used it in battle,” Annabeth says.

“...Yes? I did…” Will only looks more confused, looking back and forth between the sword and Annabeth like they’ve both grown a third head and he can’t tell which one is weirder. 

When Annabeth finally makes it to the second row, she kneels on the open seat and leans in close to Will’s face. They’re almost nose to nose. Will goes scarlet red under her gray eyed stare. 

“Annabeth please put a seatbelt on!” Percy keeps glancing back at his girlfriend, halfway between laughing and full-on panicking. She ignores him.

“You look more confident ,” Annabeth says, decisively. “And more like a fighter. Your jaw is sharper. You’re slightly more muscular. But… if I didn’t know you very well, I would never notice.” She nods, happy with her assessment. 

“This is so unfair when there’s no mirrors around!” Will whines. 

“What does that have to do with the glowing sword?” Nico ignores his complaining boyfriend, trying to piece together Annabeth’s logic. Nico doesn’t know what calculus is, but he assumes this is what doing calculus feels like. 

“It was a gift from Juno. The sword, I mean. And I think that it has a new owner.” Annabeth points at Will, grimacing.

No. No, no, no , no. Absolutely not. Hera may not meddle with his significant other’s life. Nico has seen first hand how that has ended for everyone. 

“You’ve been… blessed . Chosen,” Annabeth says, her tone as concerned and bitter as Nico feels. Nico imagines this is how those people felt in the video Austin showed him of Oprah gifting everyone a brand new car, only to find out they’re going to go bankrupt when they filed their taxes the next year. Sick to his stomach. Nothing to do but hold on for dear life as everything burns down around him.

“Great! So glad that’s sorted. Are you going to come back to your seat now, Annie?” Percy says, looking in the rearview mirror and definitely leaning more towards panicking than laughing, now. 

“Sorted?! This is not sorted! Will accidentally claiming a blessing from Juno by using Jason’s sword is not sorted! ” Nico shouts, covering his mouth after the outburst. It’s then that he realizes there’s darkness pooling around him, anger bubbling at the surface of his skin. Will puts a gentle hand on Nico’s shoulder and they all wait patiently while Nico takes deep breaths and forces the darkness he’d called forth to dissipate.

Once Nico is done, Will turns his concerned gaze to Annabeth. “Do I not get a say in this? I didn’t know you could accidentally claim a blessing.” 

Annabeth’s brow furrows, she shrugs, eyes shining with remorse that she doesn’t have the answers. “I know it’s not ideal, but you’ll probably find out the answer soon, so there’s no use in fretting over it now.” 

She reaches a hand into the back seat, dark skin a stark contrast against Will’s where it makes contact with his bicep. She holds him firm, staring into his eyes.

“It’s going to be fine, Will. Treat it as a good thing until something happens that says otherwise,” she says. Annabeth always knows what to say. Nico wishes he had wisdom to share. All these years of living, all the things he’s seen, and he can never come to conclusions like that. All his mind provides is half-hearted encouragement and enough self-loathing to fill every swimming pool in Los Angeles. 

“Right. Yeah,” Will says, but he still looks nervous. His grip on the sword has gone slack, like he’s not sure if he wants to be holding it but doesn’t want to be rude to Hera by putting it away. 

“Well, if you’re going to be the new owner of that thing, you’re going to have to let me teach you how to use it. As good of a job as you did, you were definitely holding a Roman sword like a Greek in that fight,” Nico aims for funny but his voice lacks any humor. Either Will takes pity on him or by some miracle the joke lands, because Will laughs.

“All these months of me avoiding the fighting arena, and you’re finally getting what you wanted anyways.” Will fake pouting at the idea of having to actually attend his sword-practice block when Summer session rolls around. 

“You turned down sword-fighting lessons from Nico ?” Percy asks, incredulous, as his girlfriend clambers her way back into her seat next to him. His relief is palpable when she finally buckles her seatbelt. “Nico is, like, the best swordsman Camp Half-Blood has ever had!”

“Alright, you’re laying it on a little thick, Jackson,” Nico says, but he can’t hide his blush. He can’t deny that he’s gotten better over the years. When he, Jason, and Percy would train at the arena together, Nico often ended up facing off against the both of them and still came out on top most of the time. The two older boys always relied heavily on their elemental powers. Nico, however, wasn’t allowed to use his powers until his doctor (not-yet-boyfriend) cleared him. Without the advantage of the sea or the sky, Percy and Jason lacked the finesse to their swordsmanship that Nico had learned. 

“I’m not laying it on thick, man. I mean it. And if anyone’s going to be able to teach a Greek how to fight with a Roman sword, it’s you.” Alright, surely Percy is trying to butter him up for something . Nico makes a non-committal noise, but before he can speak, Annabeth jumps in.

“I’d bet money you’ll like a more Roman fighting style, Will. Suits you better. Far more focused on versatility. It’ll be much easier to fight in one-on-one situations or take up random small skirmishes in between healing people if you need to.” She taps her fingers against her chin, definitely rifling through all the possible benefits and downfalls in her head. 

“I’m not going to lie… I know nothing about that stuff…” Will rubs the back of his neck, red rising on his freckled cheeks. 

“Well, that’s what you have Nico for!” Percy says. “And that’s why I keep Annabeth around!” He laughs, looking at his girlfriend like she hung the moon in the sky, and not at all like he only keeps her around because she’s smart.

“Oh, shut up! You’re literally doing better in your classes than I am right now.” Annabeth pushes at Percy and they get caught up in their own little world, laughing and chatting and making fun of one another. Leaving Calypso to stare out the window and Nico and Will to stare at each other. Nico finds himself lost in Will’s eyes. 

“Do I really look different? What did Annabeth say…? Sharper? I don’t know if I like that,” Will whispers, concern painting itself across his features. Their faces are less than a foot apart, breathing the same air. 

“Only a little bit. I thought I was seeing things.” Nico keeps his voice low, too. He’s not sure why he’s whispering, but Will is, so it feels like he should.

“The first thing I’m doing when we get to the gas station is looking in a mirror,” Will says, smile inching across his face. It pulls at the wound on his lip. Nico reaches up and runs his fingers across it. Will’s smile falters. A tan hand connects with Nico’s face, tracing along his own bumpy scars on the same side. 

“Sometimes I wish mine wouldn’t heal,” Will says. “Then we’d match.”

Nico is positive that if he could have hearts for eyes, he would in this moment. His entire expression melts, along with the rest of his body. 

“ My sap,” Nico says, because it makes his spine tingle and his eyes water when he does. 

Will smiles, pressing a lumpy kiss to the finger Nico left against his mouth. 

“Leave room for Jesus back there!” Percy’s voice shatters the moment, both boys jumping apart as Percy nearly crashes the minivan from how hard he laughs at their reaction. 

“Oh, fuck off!” Nico wheezes, but there’s no anger in it. He’s laughing, and so is Will. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

They’re crowded into the single use gas station bathroom, definitely not single-using it. The underpaid gas station employee looks absolutely defeated as she watches five teenagers push into the small bathroom. The bags under her eyes speak as loud as her unwashed black hair, and she goes right back to looking at her phone from behind the register with a heavy sigh. Hopefully, they don’t leave it a mess, and she can continue the rest of her day pleasantly surprised that the bathroom was not destroyed by their presence. 

However, paper towel baths are the best they’re going to get, so the trashcan is definitely going to be full by the time they’re done. Could be worse.

While the rest of them wipe their faces and arms down with damp paper towels, only a few inches between them to move, Will is hunched over the sink staring at his own face.

“It’s so strange! It’s like I’m looking at my own face but I’m not!” Will says as he rubs his hand down one side of his face, as if the blessing will rub off if he tries hard enough. Steady fingers trace the new tighter line of his jaw, eyes trained on the new harder press of his mouth, thumb rubbing against the higher set of his cheekbones. He pulls at his shirt (a little tighter), loosens his belt by two rungs to give his shorts more room (a little shorter), shakes out and readjusts the resting position of his limbs (a little longer).

“It’s not that different,” Calypso says. She’s tucked herself into a corner, arms crossed and pressed against the wall to get as much personal space as possible. She’s staring flat at Will’s reflection, finding the whole thing unassuming. Nico thought Leo’s girlfriend would have a… different… sense of humor. Or a sense of humor at all. 

“I guess so…” Will deflates a little. Nico pauses halfway through wiping his arm down and comes to stand next to Will, pushing his way into frame.

“I like it!” Nico very pointedly making eye contact with Calypso in the mirror. She rolls her eyes and finally looks away. With the weight of her gaze gone, Nico wraps an arm around Will’s shoulders. His boyfriend looks at the hand that comes to rest on his opposite side with shock, but it quickly morphs into a big smile. 

“Now we’re both different! We match,” Nico says, granting Will a rare wide smile of his own, echoing Will’s wish from earlier.

Will’s expression warms. His already large smile grows even more, so bright and genuine that Nico’s heart does a little dance in his chest. 

“We match,” Will mutters back, the sun and the stars in his eyes, and this time, no one interrupts them when he leans in for a kiss.

Chapter Text

By the time they cross state lines into New York, everyone is exhausted. Percy swears he can hear the backs of his eyelids, Annabeth has developed a permanent crease in her brow from trying to stay awake (and keep Percy awake), and Will and Nico have run out of things to do that don’t make Will carsick.

Pulling into the driveway of the Jackson residence feels like a miracle. 

Their new house in the suburbs is a far cry from the tiny crowded apartment Nico remembers. Nico’s heart palpitates at the memory of appearing on Percy’s balcony unannounced— of being invited inside for cake and food. That was the first time he met Sally Jackson, but much like everyone else Percy introduces to his mother, Nico kept coming around when Percy wasn’t there for his fix of warm meals and warm smiles when the Underworld grew too cold. Each time, she’d try to convince him not to leave. But, just like with everything else good in his life back then, Nico felt like he didn’t deserve it. And each time, he ran.  

Sally Jackson still had a sad tinge to her kindness then, as though she were atoning for something. As though she could never care for her son or his friends enough. The last time Nico saw her with Will, before their quest, she seemed lighter, happier. Whatever she found that settled the sadness in her chest, Nico hopes she finds it a million times over again. 

There’s a collective sigh of relief when the minivan gets thrown into park. 

“Home sweet home,” Percy says, a smile parting his tense driving face, and he means it. Love bleeds out of the words and drips down the sides. 

They don't even make it halfway up the driveway with their suitcases in hand before the front door is thrown open. 

“Welcome back!” Sally Jackson in all her glory comes rushing out of the front door, her husband Paul Blofis holding their daughter in tow. She’s barefoot, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail with a colorful bandana and wearing a comfortable cotton jumper over an old t-shirt. The smile lines around her mouth and crows feet around her eyes have deepened in the best of ways. Each little gray curl on her head is well loved and well earned. Percy drops his bags to throw his arms open, and his mom crashes into him. They scoop each other up into a hug so crushing Nico wonders if he’ll ever know what it feels like to love that deeply, that wholly. Will takes his hand and squeezes it. Maybe Will is wondering the same thing. 

“Oh, it’s so good to have you home,” Sally says as she pulls back from their hug, leaving a kiss on Percy’s forehead. “And you! Get in here!” She opens her arm for Annabeth to join them, giving her a pointed look. 

“Yes ma’am!” Annabeth laughs as she pushes her way into their hug, folds her arms and tucks herself right between them like it’s where she belongs. They look a little silly, considering how much taller Annabeth and Percy are than Percy’s mom, but they make it work. 

“We’ve only been gone for a few days!” Percy says, but makes no moves to end their group hug. 

“A few days too many for your sister.” Paul Blofis, Percy’s step dad that Nico only met once many years ago, speaks up. He holds the seven month old baby out to Percy, who detaches himself from his mom and girlfriend immediately to take his little sister in his arms. 

“Guppy!” Percy coos, twirling his little sister around while she babbles and laughs and makes grabby hands at him. “I missed you too,” he says, eyes watery. He nuzzles against her cheek, taking a big shaky breath. How much he loves her— Nico has to look away. It strikes at the Bianca shaped hole in his heart. 

“And you, young man.” Sally is looking at Nico , one arm still around Annabeth, her free hand held towards him. He can’t help but smile and lets her scoop him into a fierce hug of his own. “You got a haircut!” Sally fluffs the sides of his hair, admiring Piper’s handiwork. “I am so glad you two did alright on your quest. Am I going to get to hear about this one, or is it a secret, too?” Sally side eyes Percy, who immediately turns the other way and pretends he didn’t hear her, singing loudly at his little sister. His mother laughs, rolling her eyes. 

“I’m not sure there’s much to tell,” Nico says, voice shy and posture turning inwards with all the attention. 

“Oh, please,” Sally tsks , letting Nico go and moving to get a hug from Will next. Nico watches his boyfriend melt in her arms, knowing he looked much the same seconds ago. “I’m sure there’s plenty. Especially since the last time you came to my house looking for my son you didn’t even tell me that this wonderful young man was your boyfriend! ” She raises a dark eyebrow at him, and Nico sees with sudden clarity where Percy gets his sass from. Both boys flush bright red. Will’s shoulders scrunch up to his ears in Sally’s hold. 

“Leave them alone, mom,” Percy laughs, cutting back into the conversation now that Annabeth has stolen Estelle from him. He keeps glancing at them with glittering eyes, watching as Annabeth holds Estelle against her hip and plays with her tiny fingers. “Sorry, Nico, I spilled the beans. I thought you would’ve told her when you were here!” Percy, to his credit, looks genuinely apologetic. 

“It’s okay,” Nico says, and he means it. He runs a hand through his bangs, itching for something to do after being in the car for an entire day. He keeps forgetting to transfer the coin Will gave him to his new pants, used to only having one pair he’d wear over and over again for weeks. It’s sitting at the bottom of his suitcase right now. Nico picks at the threads inside his pockets instead. “I just… didn’t know if…” As soon as Nico goes to say it, he knows it’s stupid. There’s no world in which if he told Sally he was dating Will that day that she wouldn’t have celebrated for him, pressed them for questions on how they got together with great joy, sat and listened with bated breath as they talked about one another. 

“That’s okay darling. You don’t owe it to anyone to tell them. I’m only teasing because I’m happy for you.” Sally puts a hand on each of Nico’s shoulders. She’s barely taller than him. Her blue eyes sparkle with love and playfulness. She leans in close to whisper, “and he really is handsome. And sweet. Percy told me all about how wonderful he is to you.” She winks as she pulls back, leaving Nico flustered as she walks over to Annabeth to scoop her daughter out of her hands. 

Percy told his mom about how amazing Will is to him? Nico can’t even begin to wrap his mind around how that makes him feel, so he shoves it down for later when his head isn’t spinning. 

“Alright, everyone inside before the food gets cold! I made chicken on the grill. Does anyone have any dietary restrictions I should know about?” Paul leads the charge back inside, looking over his shoulder as he talks, and everyone picks their suitcases up to follow. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“How was Piper holding up?” Percy’s mom asks, her voice as soft and sympathetic as a gentle sea-breeze. 

“Better than I thought she’d be, to be completely honest,” Annabeth says around her bite of chicken. This side of Annabeth is new to Nico, but after this past week, he feels like he’s seeing her in a new light. To Nico, she was always tied to Camp Half-Blood, but in his defense, Annabeth had been a year-rounder there since she was seven. It’s hard to separate her from the determined and quest-hardened girl he first met, desperate to find a place for herself in the Greek world. Seeing her laying on Piper’s fluffy carpet crocheting, or here in Sally Jackson’s dining room, talking with her mouth full, more comfortable than he’s ever seen her — Nico likes this version of Annabeth. It makes him feel bad for ever thinking ill of her. Even if it was just because she got tangled in his Percy-related feelings. 

“That’s good.” Paul holds the mashed potatoes up for anyone who wants another helping, and Percy takes it immediately, scooping more on his plate even though there’s still some left he didn’t finish. “I can’t imagine it’s been easy. Especially without being able to tell her dad the truth. Grieving is not an easy process to go through alone.” 

Don’t have to tell them twice. All of the demigods around the table nod. 

“And what about you, dear?” Sally turns her attention to Nico. “Any plans now that you’re done questing?” 

See, that would be a very thoughtful question, except there may well be another quest in Nico’s very near future. He makes panicked eye contact with Percy, who has to hold back laughter. 

“Nico hasn’t gone to school since, like, the fifth grade. I don’t think he has any plans other than questing, mom.” Percy intercepts the question for him. Nico flushes red. He doesn’t love the reminder that school is pretty much a no-go for him, but it’s true. 

“Fifth grade? How old are you, Nico?” Paul asks, shocked. With all the eyes on him, Will sneaks a hand into Nico’s under the table and squeezes, calming Nico’s racing heart. 

“Fifteen, sir.” Nico cringes at his need to add the honorific, picking at the table cloth. 

Paul blinks back at him in silence for a few seconds— stunned into silence or doing the math, Nico cannot tell. 

“You demigods always look older than you are,” Paul mutters to himself, rubbing at his stubble. 

“Thanks, it’s the trauma.” Percy wiggles his eyebrows, winking. He earns a flat amused look from his mother and giggles from the rest of the table. Percy’s smile reaches shit-eating levels. Dangerous territory.

Paul laughs fondly at Percy’s antics. 

“You’d be a freshman in high school… that wouldn’t be too difficult to catch up on, if that’s something you were interested in, you know,” Paul says earnestly. Nico has to restart his brain, for a moment. 

Is he serious? That’s almost four years of missed school— not to mention that before the fifth grade he was attending school in the thirties in Italy. 

Not that Paul would know that. 

“Really?” Nico can’t properly tame the excitement in his voice. 

“Sally and I have helped other demigods get into school programs. I’m sure we could find something that suits you.”

Now Will looks intrigued. “What kind of programs?” he asks, leaning forward to look around Nico at Paul, mouth full of mashed potatoes. 

“It depends on what you want. Online GED courses to get a high school diploma, private in-person schools, trade schools, specialty tracks—” Paul shrugs, like any of those words made sense. Nico is more confused now than he was two seconds ago. Will, however, looks ecstatic. “I work for the school system, so I have a decent understanding of what’s out there, and some idea of what might work best for different people. And, of course, the very important ability to look into and, ah , potentially alter student records.” 

Paul looks sheepish at that last bit. But that’s the most important part. How would Nico attend any school if he doesn’t technically exist at all? He isn’t about to go get a fake social security card and birth certificate just to go to high school. 

“So, like, if I wanted to go to medical school…?” Will looks at the floor as he asks, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. Wait, what? Did Nico hear that right? Did Will actually think about what they talked about at Sequoyah…? Nico’s not the only one who's shocked. Percy and Annabeth are also looking at Will with matching raised eyebrows. Annabeth looks impressed, Percy looks worried. Nico feels somewhere in between. 

“You’d probably be best off in a specialty nursing track. A lot of the high schools around here offer that, online or in person— it’ll help you knock out some of your prerequisite classes when you eventually go to college,” Paul says.

“Okay… okay.” Will leans back in his seat, deep in thought. They’re so talking about that later. 

“And you, Nico?” Paul prompts. 

“I always assumed I’d be running errands for my dad for the rest of my life…” Nico admits, still staring at his boyfriend who seems to be deeply considering medical school despite his hesitations the last time they talked about school. Or anything other than Will being full time at camp. What about the infirmary? 

“Who’s your father?” Paul asks, before he can think better of it.

Silence fills the room. 

“...Hades.” Nico says, waiting for a freak out or something , but Paul merely lifts his eyebrows. 

“Ah, interesting,” he hums, nodding. “Well, I don’t suppose there’s a college degree you’re after, then?” That’s it? Is this man really so unfazed by Nico’s father being the god of the dead? 

Then again, Percy Jackson is his stepson. And Nico has heard that Poseidon comes over for dinner on the occasion. And Sally and Paul were there for the Battle of Manhattan. So maybe Paul is just as used to it as Sally is after all this time. 

“Um, no, not really. I don’t have—” What’s that thing Percy was whining about on Piper’s living room floor while doing his homework? Oh, that’s right. “—career goals.” 

Percy holds in laughter from the other side of the table. Nico kicks him in the shins. Which only serves to make him actually laugh.

“Well, isn’t Hades also the god of wealth? You could go to college for fun if you have the means of paying for it. Is there a subject you’re interested in learning more about?” Paul leans on his hand, full attention on Nico, like he’s ready to hear Nico list anything and everything he’s ever been interested in. 

“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea!” Sally adds while Nico’s head spins. “Surely you can think of something.” 

“Yeah,” Nico stutters out. “Yeah, I could— I could do that.” And he, too, leans back in his chair, lost in thought.

“And Percy, how is picking a major going?” Percy’s mother asks him. His groan echoes in the dining room— as does the thunk of his forehead as it hits the table. 

“Oh, quit being so dramatic!” Annabeth laughs. 

Nico tunes them out. He shovels delicious home-cooked food into his mouth and lets himself think, for the first time, that an almost-normal life with Will in it could actually be possible.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

It’s almost two in the morning, and Nico can’t sleep. First Hera, then Typhon, and now being in another new place, another bed that isn’t his— Nico has to delicately peel himself from Will’s embrace and find somewhere quiet, somewhere to think. 

When he makes it to the kitchen, looking for the door to the backyard he thinks he saw there earlier, he hears a noise. His ears perk up, his eyes strain to adjust to the dark, and— oh . It’s Percy. They look at each other, Percy shirtless in the dark, a ham-sandwich halfway to his mouth— and he laughs. 

“Couldn’t sleep either?” Percy asks, setting the sandwich down… directly onto the counter. What a menace. 

“I think Hypnos hates me,” Nico jokes, slowly making his way over to the kitchen island, a collection of well-loved barstools waiting for him. His plaid pajama pants drag along the carpeted living room floor, the tiles of the kitchen are ice cold against his feet in contrast. He takes a seat across from Percy. 

“Anything in particular keeping you up?” He picks his sandwich up again to actually take a bite this time, barely chewing before going in for another. Gross. 

Nico isn’t sure how much he wants to share. He may not have a crush on Percy anymore, but he definitely still has a soft spot. The boy has a way of getting information out of him like no one else. 

Nico’s lack of response and avoidant gaze seem answer enough for Percy, who hums around his late-night snack. 

“Trying to pick a major?” Percy jokes. “Staring at the school webpage for seven hours doesn’t fix that, just so you know. I’ve tried.” He’s positive Percy isn’t exaggerating. 

“I have to go to high school first,” Nico says, and they share a laugh. It pitters out quickly into silence.  

“Nightmares?” Percy guesses again, far more serious this time. 

Nico shakes his head. “They haven’t bothered me as much since I revisited… you know…”

“Yeah.” Percy swallows, looks to the right, then to the left, like he’s making sure no one else is around. As if anyone else would be awake at this hour but them. Two broken pieces. “I’m glad you got closure, by the way. I didn’t hear much, but Will told me a little bit about what happened. I don’t know if he told you or—”

“He did, yeah.” Nico nods. He remembers that night. Will was so awkward, asking Nico if it was okay for him to talk to Percy about their trip to Tartarus. As if he needed permission. Who is Nico to tell him what to do or what will make him feel better? It’s rare that Will reaches out to others for support. Nico would never get in the way of that. “And, thanks. I’m glad too. It’s nice, not having to carry the weight of the what ifs for Bianca anymore, you know?” 

It’s Percy’s turn to nod. This conversation is nice, but it’s stilted at best. Nico shifts awkwardly in his chair as the silence stretches on. Words bubble up in his chest that he tries so hard to push down but the hour is late and he has a captive audience, right here, and Will said he should tell someone, so—

“Is it bad that I would trade that for Jason being alive?” Nico stares at the kitchen countertop, runs a cold finger across colder granite. 

“Not at all,” Percy says without a moment of hesitation. “I’d give just about anything to have him back, I think.” Percy chuckles weakly, no humor in it.

“I know it was hard on you, too. I’m sorry that I didn’t reach out more.” Nico makes watery eye contact with Percy, tries desperately to keep the tears down. It’s a futile endeavor. 

“Hey, it’s okay. We were both going through a lot. I don’t know if either of us were ready to talk about it.” Percy sighs, rounding the kitchen island to sit next to Nico instead of standing across from him, sandwich finished. There are crumbs all over the counter. “I definitely wasn’t ready.”

Nico can only nod, again, sure that his voice will fail him now if he tries. It’s weird that his bangs don’t fall into his eyes now with the action.

“Look,” Percy starts, looking in the opposite direction of Nico’s face, tears gathering in his eyes. “I have a feeling I know what Hera wants you to do. And all I’m saying is that if you need a quest buddy, I’m there. Okay? Annabeth will kill me for missing my classes but… it would be worth it.” Percy goes for a joke at the end, still not able to meet Nico’s gaze.

Nico’s heart stops in his chest. 

He knows? How does he know? Why does Percy sound so sure of himself?

Nico opens his mouth to ask every one of those questions, but all that comes out is a squeak. Percy holds a hand up. 

“Nope, it’s cool man. Let’s avoid any prophecy-fulfilling talk. I’m just putting it out there that if you’re in need of people, I’m your guy.” Percy finally turns to look at him, and the potential tears are gone, replaced by rock hard determination. “Jason was the best of us. I know you know that. If anyone deserves to bend the rules, for once in their fucking life, it’s him.”

Ah. So Percy absolutely knows what Nico intends to do. Nico lets out a small chuckle, wiping at his wet cheeks. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” 

Suddenly, Percy is standing, wrapping Nico up in his arms. Nico’s body goes into shock, unmoving for longer than is appropriate, before he remembers that he’s supposed to hug back— and then he’s wrapping his own arms around Percy’s torso and sobbing into his shoulder. And if Nico is not mistaken, the top of his head feels wet and he hears sniffling over the sound of his own crying. 

A light flickers on down the hall. Nico tries to back away, misplaced fear lodging in his chest, but Percy grips him tight. 

“Everything okay?” Annabeth. Her voice flutters soft into the open kitchen. 

“We’re fine,” Percy stage-whispers back. He pulls back from Nico, but keeps a hand on his shoulder. “You good?” Percy pitches his voice down just for Nico to hear. 

“Yeah,” Nico sniffles, detaching himself from Percy’s hold. He puts a good two feet between them, needing the space.

Annabeth pads into the room, looking as tired as Nico feels. He doesn’t need the lights on to know there are bags under her eyes. She rubs harshly at them, dark skin lacking its usual luster from sitting in the car all day. Either she was already asleep, or planning on sleeping and couldn’t, because her hair is wrapped up in a silk scarf for the night.

Annabeth comes in close to tap her forehead against Percy’s shoulder, yawning. 

“Sorry, I actually came out here looking for Nico,” Annabeth says, pulling back to smile sheepishly at her boyfriend. 

“Wow…” Percy jokes, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he rolls his eyes and huffs. The fuss gets a laugh out of Nico. Sad and small, but a laugh nonetheless. 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I was looking through Jason’s sketchbook some more, and I— uh— I found these,” Annabeth says. She reaches into her hoodie’s front pocket and pulls out a handful of small envelopes. “They were tucked into completely random pages in the sketchbook. They’re all addressed to you.”

“Oh…” Nico takes the letters from her gingerly. Each one has his name on it, the intended destination listed as Camp Half-Blood’s address. And each one has a matching red stamp on it that says Returned To Sender .

“You don’t have to read them, or take them, but I wasn’t going to look at them without your permission. Can’t say I didn’t think about it, though.” Annabeth yawns again, a little laugh escaping her, and she wraps her arms around Percy’s bare torso. Nico suddenly feels like he’s intruding when Percy leans in to talk to her, inches from her face. Percy leaves a soft kiss against her temple, and Nico looks away as quickly as he can. With red cheeks, he busies himself looking at the letters. Four of them in total, each one in a neat yellow envelope, the handwriting on the front unmistakably Jason’s in its formality and tidiness. 

“I’m gonna—” Nico jerks his head back down the hall he came from, and doesn’t bother looking up to see if Percy and Annabeth heard him before hopping off the barstool to make his way back to the guest room. 

It’s pitch black in the room when he creaks the door open. Will is snoring gently on the bed, fully starfished out in Nico’s absence. Even in the dark, the tiniest bit of light in the room manages to reflect off of Will's sleeping face. It’s tempting to throw the letters down onto his suitcase and leave them for later. Future Nico’s problem. He could do that and crawl right back into bed with Will under the thick, warm covers, and no one would need to know.

But he can’t bring himself to. 

Heart panging at missing out on Will’s cuddles, Nico makes his way over to the large desk in the room instead. While showing them their room for the night, Paul explained that it doubled as an office for him or Sally when they have to work from home. He rambled on about the importance of keeping work and home life separate. Nico’s not sure that applies to his life. 

He settles into the plush tan leather chair, looking for a light to flick on. He worries the bright desk lamp will wake Will up, so he reaches for the small salt lamp in the corner instead. Sally’s choice, he imagines. It glows a pinkish orange, casting long shadows along the room and filling it with a sense of calm. Nico can hear Percy and Annabeth still chatting in the kitchen, the gentle push of wind against the window, Will’s steady breathing.

Nico lays the letters out on the desk. The first was sent from the McLean’s residence, the second and third were sent from an address Nico doesn’t recognize in California — all with the red returned to sender stamped next to the address. Nico’s name sits neatly in the center. Nico di Angelo. His full name, written in Jason’s hand above Camp Half-Blood’s mailing address. The date sits in the upper corner for all of them, telling Nico the first of them was sent months ago— a whole two months before Apollo even appeared at camp as Lester. 

All except for one, actually. The fourth letter just says Nico in the center. The date sits underneath. No addresses or return stamp, now that he’s looking closer. Barely a week before Jason’s death.

Nico puts that one at the bottom of the stack.

He’ll read them in order. That makes sense… and it leaves the ominous one for last. Nico tears open the first letter.

Hey Nico,

It’s Jason. I’ve tried Iris Messaging, I’ve tried giving messages to Tempest, I’ve even tried sending a fax to camp. A FAX. That could have failed purely because I don’t know how to use a fax machine, though the front desk lady at my school said it should have gone through fine. I have one last option left, and it’s to hope that somehow, some way, this letter reaches you in the mail. I’ve been praying to Hermes all day.

I thought about talking to Percy, and I tried when my first attempts to reach you didn’t work, but… I don’t know. I think that will upset me more than help. Plus, I’m sure Piper is already talking to Annabeth about it all. Anyways— 

What do you do when your girlfriend tells you she thinks she might be gay?

I’ve already accepted that we’re probably going to break up. I think it’s harder on Piper than it is on me. I love her, I really do, but I want her to be happy more than anything. If that means being her best friend and not her boyfriend, that’s fine. I can learn to live with that. I’m sad, it sucks, but I’ll survive.

What I’m worried about is that I’m not saying or doing the right thing.

She barely talks to me anymore. The more I push for her to open up about it the more she closes off. I don’t know if she’s trying to protect herself or protect me. I’ve tried telling her it’s fine, I’ve tried telling her we can stay together, we can break up, we can take a break— none of it makes her happy. And, worst of all, monster activity has picked up over here, so when we do get twenty minutes together, we usually end up fighting someone or something. 

Or each other. 

Am I doing something wrong? I just want her to be happy.

Jason Grace

Nico’s heart pounds. Jason… wanted Nico’s advice? What would Nico have told him? Nico doesn’t know anything about relationships. He certainly didn’t then, when Jason would have sent the letter, and he barely does now. Nico and Will have never really… fought. Not like that.

Would he have told Jason to keep trying? Would he have told Jason to break up with her? 

He’s not sure it would have mattered. Piper came out to Jason and his only question for Nico was how he could support her better— Nico decides then and there he’s never going to show these to Piper. They’d break her heart. 

He opens the next one with shaky fingers, dated more than a month later. 

Nico,

Something is going on. No one can reach anyone. Piper’s father filed for bankruptcy. Monsters have been getting more frequent. 

I can only hope my last letter reached you. Is camp okay? Or are weird things happening over there, too? 

Piper and I officially broke up, by the way. I transferred to a boarding school. I think seeing me all day every day, around her house and at her school, was upsetting Piper. I don’t know what she told Coach Hedge and Millie, but neither of them would talk to me when I picked my stuff up from her house. Which is fine. I don’t mind taking the blame. But… she won’t tell me if I did something wrong. I’m not sure what I could have done differently. I love her. I didn’t mean to hurt her.

Jason

Nico’s not sure he can do this. 

He looks at Will’s face, peaceful and soft in the light of the salt lamp. Would he be upset if Nico woke him up? It’s a silly thought, Will would want Nico to wake him up if he needed to. 

But does he want to? If he wakes Will up, he’ll have to share the letters with him.

He can’t do that to Jason.

These are private thoughts, personal feelings— for Nico. Addressed to Nico. Nico’s heart clenches in his chest. All that time being frustrated with Jason for not coming to any of them— he tried. He tried to come to Nico . Nico feels angry all over again, for an entirely different reason. Angry with himself this time, that he thought Jason a hypocrite. That he assumed Jason went it alone. That he didn’t visit Jason or Piper or Percy or any of them when communications went haywire. Nico could have done that. He could have shadow traveled to any of them at any time. And he didn’t. 

He reads the letter again, and buries his head in his hands, eyes filling with water. Jason really didn’t think of himself for a second, did he? Jason’s only friends and family where he was living— and he didn’t think Piper selfish for letting Coach Hedge and Mellie be upset with him. For letting them think Jason broke up with her . That detail, Nico remembers Apollo telling them. That Piper let them believe what they wanted— and Jason didn’t bother to correct them. 

Nico’s very glad Annabeth didn’t find these until now. He’s not sure he’d be able to stop himself from marching to Piper’s bedroom to demand an answer. His blood boils under his skin. 

Nico rips open the third one far less carefully, desperate for something to distract him from the rage bubbling up in his chest. Before he does something stupid. 

Nico, you would think after two wars, demigod life would get simpler. Chiron once told me that most demigods only see one war in their lifetime, if they see one at all. We must have really bad luck, huh?

If you didn’t get my last two letters, this one won’t make any sense. I’m almost positive they’re not reaching you, at this point, but I have to keep trying.

I’m stalling.

Nico… the truth is, I got a prophecy. The Sibyl gave it to me, while Piper and I were looking for answers. I stumbled into her holding place by accident. Apparently, Apollo is involved somehow. The Sibyl told me to wait for him and the demigod girl he’d be traveling with.

She said, “If you seek out the emperor, one of you will— Three Letter Word, starts with D.”

I know it’s die. The Sibyl confirmed it was die. That seems final to me. There was no add on, no “one of you magically comes back”, no way around it. And I think you know me well enough to know that I can’t let it be Piper. I’ve been upset with myself since Leo died that I didn’t do more to try and keep the prophecy from being about him. I can’t live with that again. I haven’t been able to think about anything else. I don’t know what to do. I’m not smart like Annabeth, or crafty like Leo, or resourceful like you. The only thing I’ve managed to do since getting the prophecy is avoid Piper and lay on the floor of my dorm room like my life is already over. 

If you have any ideas… I’d say write me back, but I’m not sure I’d get your letter. Is Will letting you shadow travel again? Is California too far away?

Jason

With the same pang Nico felt in his soul the moment Jason died, Nico’s heart cracks in two. Jason didn’t just die . He died alone and unwilling . He wanted a way out. He tried to find one. And his friends, Nico , failed him. They didn’t check on him. They didn’t get his pleas for help. 

Jason knew he was going to die. And he came to Nico for help. And Nico failed. 

Nico can picture him lying on the floor of a mostly-empty bedroom. Gray walls, gray floor, school work and belongings neatly tucked away. Bed pushed into the corner. Jason’s black-frame glasses sitting on his chest. Blue eyes staring unblinking at the ceiling, eyebrows creased and mouth parted. His lungs filling and emptying, filling and emptying, chewing at the scar that pierces his upper lip. Thoughts swirling in endless storms in Jason’s mind. What to do, who to call, which choice to make

Nico blinks hard, shaking the image from his mind. Picturing Jason will only make this hurt more. 

Nico still remembers the prophecy Leo and Jason got, remembers their friends pouring over it before and after Leo’s death. And Leo died, despite all the desperate research they all did. But now he’s back. And the moment he came back, Jason went. 

Nico wonders if Jason paid the price for Leo cheating death, for working around their prophecy. Something tells Nico that Jason wouldn’t mind. According to Apollo, Jason nearly blew the electricity out in his dorm room from excitement and relief when he heard Leo was alive.  

The last letter sits in Nico’s hands— the ominous one. No addresses, no stamp, no last name. Only Nico . And the date. So close to Jason’s date of death it makes Nico’s skin crawl. 

He takes a deep breath, and opens it. 

All of my letters were sent back to me this morning. Returned to sender, every one of them. The first one was from months ago. Why is it getting back to me now? And I know you won’t get this one. But I wanted you to know I made my choice. Piper’s moving to Oklahoma with her dad, and they both deserve to see that through. I hope you all forgive me. 

Is it bad that I’m comforted by knowing I might still be able to see you, after I’m dead? And that I’ll see you all eventually? 

I took a book out from my school library about loss, and it sounds like I’ve finally hit the acceptance phase of my grief. It’s making me feel weird. I don’t think I like it. Don’t miss me too much, okay? 

Jason

Nico runs a thumb across the tiny neat lines of handwriting, and the dam opens up. Tears stain the edges of the paper before he yanks his head back to avoid smearing any ink. 

There was nothing to forgive him for. Jason did what he thought was right. And as angry as that makes Nico, it makes him even angrier that he didn’t think of it before— Jason said Nico might be able to see him after he’s dead. 

What's stopping him from summoning Jason’s ghost? 

Nico sits up, the idea striking him like a bolt of lightning. What is stopping him? Why hasn’t he tried that yet? What’s wrong with him?  

Stupid! Idiota! 

The letters scatter across the desk as Nico stands up, making a mad dash for the door. He cringes at the slam as it closes, praying it doesn’t wake Will up. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that Percy’s house has a fridge full of food and a backyard. To dig a hole in. And dump said food inside. 

Nico hopes Jason likes Sally Jackson’s cookies. And that Sally doesn’t mind having to make a new batch in the morning. 

He feels like a madman, pilfering the kitchen of its apple juice boxes and cookies and dinner leftovers, dumping them all uncaring onto too-flimsy paper plates.

Even with all the ruckus, Nico makes it to the backyard undetected. Standing outside, wind whipping through his hair— Nico feels a flicker of hesitation. 

What if this doesn’t work? What if he can’t reach Jason from whatever afterlife he’s in? A feeling bubbles up that tells Nico he hasn’t tried this yet because he’s been avoiding failing. He can’t fail to summon Jason if he never does it at all. The reality that this could fail threatens to crash down around him.

Should he have woken Percy up? Will? 

…Is it selfish that if this does work Nico wants to talk to Jason all by himself?

There’s only one way to find out. 

“Sorry, Ms. Jackson,” Nico mumbles, beginning the process of digging a small hole in the Jackson’s backyard. He can only hope none of the neighbors are looking out of their windows. 

The soil sings with memories here. Families who have come and gone, loved and lost, thrived and shattered— the ground unchanging through it all. Perfect for ghost summoning. 

Soil upturned, he opens the apple juice boxes one by one at the top, not bothering with the straw, and dumps them into the tiny pit he’s made. Once it’s full of liquid, the food goes in next. From here, the motions are automatic. Ancient Greek flows from him, the chants long memorized and natural despite how long it’s been and the nerves vibrating beneath his skin. He kneels over the hole, arms stretched out, pleading for his ritual to work. The wind picks up, hair billowing around him, as he finishes his chants and the air pulses with unnatural frequencies. And… nothing. 

Nico’s body goes ice cold. Of course this wouldn’t work. Nothing ever works in his favor. He was denied contacting his mother and his sister, and now he’ll be denied his best friend, too. Because that’s how life goes for Nico di Angelo. Actually, with Nico’s luck, maybe he can’t summon anyone from a different afterlife. 

Nico stands up slowly, emotions lodging in his throat and his years-old defenses kicking in to swallow them down. The familiar taste of disappointment, of desperation followed up with radio silence— and then, all the sudden, Nico can feel him. 

The air hums with magic, the sharp bite of electricity in the air sends goosebumps along Nico’s skin. Just to the right of the pit Nico dug, a form shimmers into existence. 

Close cropped hair, crooked glasses, wide shoulders under a school uniform and undone tie—

Jason. Blue and glowing and see-through, but it’s Jason. He’s right there. And Nico is so stupid for not doing this earlier. 

“Nico?” He asks, eyes darting around the open air, desperate for something to land on.

“Jason!” Nico springs to his feet and almost runs through him, forgetting for a moment that contact with ghosts provides no comfort. He stops himself inches from Jason’s ghostly form. “Jason,” he says again. Because he’s right there.

Jason’s eyes settle on Nico’s face, but something isn’t right. He’s looking just past Nico— off . 

“Everything okay?” Jason asks, square eyebrows furrowing together. His mouth pulls into a small frown. 

“Wh— everything okay ? You died! No everything isn’t okay—!” Nico cuts himself off with a sob, hand flying up to cover his mouth, realizing he’s shouting. 

Still not quite looking at Nico, Jason’s expression morphs into surprise, and then pain, and then sad understanding. “I’m sorry, I…” Jason shakes his head. “Aren’t I supposed to be able to see you?” There’s worry in Jason’s voice, panic. Nico blinks the tears out of his eyes long enough to look up at Jason in shock.

“You can’t see me?” 

“No, I can hear you… but barely. Like you’re talking through water— I’m so sorry. I thought you’d be able to summon me—” The idea that Nico might not be able to summon him rattles Jason, concern lighting his eyes. It’s an expression Nico isn’t used to seeing on ghosts’ faces. Usually, after death, there isn’t much to worry about. Mourn, yes. Reflect on, yes. But fear ? What is there to fear?

“I did summon you. I can see you.” Nico speaks louder, clearer, not caring if the neighbors call the cops on him. He dries the tears from his eyes. Jason’s form flickers like an ill-connected hologram. 

“Oh…” This seems to upset Jason even more. “Well… then why—” His ghost glitches out of existence for a second and then reappears. 

Thunder booms across the sky, not a cloud in sight.

“Oh, you have to be joking!” All of Nico’s sadness and frustration and hopelessness from the last month boils into rage in an instant— a sharp point ready to be wielded. If Zeus wants to play games, Nico can play games. “Jason, can you hear me?” Nico shouts, desperate to be heard.  

“Yes?” Jason leans forward towards the sound of Nico’s voice. 

Nico reaches out, places a hand on Jason’s ghostly form— the other boy flinches from the contact, but his form stops threatening to disappear. It’s ice cold and Nico hates it like he’s never hated touching a ghost before. It should be warm, alive Jason under his palms.

“I got your letters. We’re going to figure this out.” 

Jason’s eyes go wide. And Nico severs the connection.

Nico collapses to the ground. 

Usually summoning ghosts takes no effort at all, more the ritual than any innate ability, but he must’ve been using his powers to keep their connection afloat more than he realized. Nico wheezes against the grass, using his last ounces of energy to push the soil back over his impromptu pit (Jason didn’t even get to eat any of it) and pull the Earth back into place with his powers. The grass will grow back (hopefully).

Nico stumbles his way back inside, shucking his clothing onto the floor of the guest room without a second thought, and climbs right into bed next to Will— where he belongs. He’ll think about everything later . Now, he’s going to pass out in Will’s arms and hope the other boy lets him sleep in tomorrow.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Jason stands outside of a little cafe, shell shocked and unmoving. The other ghosts around him pay him no mind, flitting in and out of the entrance as though Jason isn’t there. In his dreams, Nico stands across from him— as close as they were when Nico summoned him. 

Nico doesn’t know how he’s here. A place strictly off limits, dreams or not, for living demigods. Especially children of Hades. But he recognizes the place instantly. It’s a gut feeling, the sweet smell of the air and the watercolor skies— 

Elysium. Jason chose the Greek afterlife, and he’s in Elysium.

Chapter Text

Nico is yanked from his dream to the feeling of ice water being dumped over his head. He sits up with a gasp, eyes snapping open and arms flinging outwards with the shock— but they aren’t wet. He’s full body shivering, even with the warm covers pooled at his waist and Will at his side. His head is pounding, his mouth feels like the Sahara desert, his eyes are pulsing in his head. Everything hurts.

What happened?  

Nico stares at his boyfriend’s face in the dark, desperately trying to piece everything together through his migraine. Will looks so peaceful, curled up on his left and hands tucked up by his face. Nico follows the gentle rise and fall of his breathing until the rabbit-prey race of his heart slows. 

It starts to come back to him, piece by piece.

The letters, summoning Jason, dragging himself to bed, exhausted— that explains the headache. Nico must have overexerted himself. But there was something else… something that flickers at the back of his mind. 

His dream.

Nico saw something important— but what?

Nico closes his eyes, breathes in deep. His physical form wavers and threatens to join the shadows of the dark room as Nico tries to bring himself back to that place and see his dream again. The first thing he remembers is the smell — sweet and damp and fresh. Like Will described petrichor. Like Will described Nico .

He sees the watercolor skies, next. Sunset yellow and orange and pink streaking across a never-changing sky. The fact that he recalls it as never-changing feels important. Somewhere where the sun sets, but Apollo isn’t there to pull it overhead to its final destination. 

Nico forces himself to look down in his head, tries to focus on what was right there in front of him—

Jason . Standing in the doorway of that little cafe, the sign in Italian and gelato in the window. Ghosts rushing in and out around him. 

Elysium. Jason chose the Greek afterlife, and he’s in Elysium.

Nico sucks in a fast breath, eyes flying open. He knows where Jason is. Not only does he know where Jason is, but he’s somewhere Nico could get to him . If you disregard the fact that living mortals, and especially living children of Hades, aren’t allowed to even consider trying to make their way into Elysium (much less make their way out of Elysium with a powerful dead hero in tow). But that’s a detail for later-Nico to handle. If Juno contacted him directly to see this quest through for her, it must at least be possible , right?

Now-Nico knows one thing and one thing only: the faster he gets to camp, the faster he gets his prophecy, the faster he can go get Jason. 

A sense of urgency overtakes Nico’s body that he can't contain. He needs to wake Will up. He rushes his hands over to Will’s shoulders, but stops— hesitates. Because there’s one tiny problem… Nico can’t tell Will what happened. Zeus is watching his every move. The lightning when Juno came to talk to Nico in his dreams, the thunder when his connection to Jason’s ghost fizzled— one wrong move and Nico is burnt toast. Nico shivers. He would prefer not to go out the same way his mother did. 

But the two of them just talked about Nico not going this alone. Nico told him, on Piper’s cold concrete porch in Oklahoma, that he would come to Will if anything happened. Not only that, but Percy basically already knows. So it’s not exactly a secret…

No, Nico can’t risk it. The quieter he does this, the easier it’ll be. For all Nico knows, if he keeps it under wraps enough, he might be able to shadow travel straight to the Underworld, grab Jason, and go. He can’t risk that by talking about it outloud. After everything Jason has done for him, Nico is not about to make an Orpheus level mistake. He has to trust himself— for Jason.

He failed Jason once already in life, he can’t fail him again in death. 

Nico does still have to wake up Will, though. They need to get back to camp. Now.

“Will?” Nico not-so-gently shakes his boyfriend, disturbing Will’s picturesque peaceful slumber. A furrow appears between golden brows, and Will lifts a hand to swat at his assailant. He’s lucky Nico isn’t a monster. Will would be dead by now!

“Will, wake up!” Nico tries again, louder this time, earning him a half-limp hand coming up to push against his face. 

“S’not sunrise. Go’way,” Will slurs, turning his back to Nico and shifting around to get comfortable again. 

The desperation and panic steadily rising in Nico’s chest makes him overrides any guilt Nico felt at having to wake Will up. He clambers over his sleeping boyfriend until he can hop off on Will’s side of the bed— and yanks the covers away from him.

“Hey!” Will finally cracks an eye open to demand answers, but Nico doesn’t give him the chance. 

“We need to go back to camp, now, ” Nico says, face inches from Will’s. Please trust me on this, please trust me on this , Nico chants in his head. He feels like a wild animal who decided flight is the best option, but has to wait for his pack to move. 

“Wh—? Why?” Will looks bewildered, but he sits up and stands on wobbly feet, blond curls sticking every which way and blue eyes still half-lidded with sleep. Nico ignores his question, flitting around the room to gather his things and throw them in his suitcase. He shoves everything inside, the zipper threatening to burst at the seams as he forces it shut. If it works, it works. 

Nico turns away from his suitcase, scanning the room for anything else that needs to be done. When he finds nothing, he lets out a sigh of relief. Time to go find Percy. As much as Nico would love to shadow travel him and Will back in the blink of an eye, he doesn’t think Will would be very happy with him. Will watches with confusion as Nico disappears out of the guest bedroom door without another word. 

It must be right before sunrise, because Nico is greeted by the sight of Sally and Paul already awake, feeding Estelle in her high chair and chatting softly. That’s good— that means he got at least three hours of sleep last night. More than he was expecting. 

“Good morning, Nico,” Sally says, warm and quiet. Nico is positive she’s trying to start a conversation, but he just ducks his head with a tiny wave and keeps speed walking to his destination: Percy’s bedroom. It’s easy to locate— the door has two hand painted sharks on the front. One clearly meant to be Percy, with big green eyes and a little Camp Half-Blood bead necklace, the other meant to be Estelle, small, with sweet blue eyes, and missing a tooth. 

In his haste, Nico almost walks right in. He stops himself with the knob already halfway turned. He can’t believe he almost did that… A bad habit formed from knowing that everyone at camp keeps it modest in their cabins, with the constant threat of siblings or other campers entering and leaving at random. But Nico is not at camp. This is Percy’s actual home. Nico’s face goes bright red. He forces every thought out of his head all at once before they can even start and lifts his hand to knock. Like a normal person.

“Who—?” Percy’s response drifts under the cracks in the door, voice raspy from sleep. 

“It’s Nico,” he says, foot tapping incessantly against the carpet. There’s a long pause, and Nico is worried Percy has gone back to sleep, but then his voice sounds out again— more awake this time. 

“You can come in.”

The door creaks open under Nico’s hand and he peeks his head in, still wary about what could await him. It’s not nearly as dramatic as he was expecting. Percy and Annabeth are sitting up in a small twin-sized bed, pushed into the corner, the rest of the room overtaken by Estelle’s things. Percy is clicking on the bed-side lamp when Nico enters. It bathes the room in overly-bright yellow light that all three of them flinch away from, unprepared. 

Nico opens his mouth to speak, but Annabeth beats him to it. “You look like shit,” she says, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. 

Nico snaps his mouth shut. 

“I’m… sorry?” Nico narrows his eyes at her and then looks down at himself. He doesn’t have any dirt on him still from last night’s digging, does he? Nico did his best to wash up in the sink before dragging himself to bed. He doesn’t see anything, and doesn’t feel anything either when he rubs his hands across his face to double check. 

“What Annabeth means is you look tired ,” Percy says, digging an elbow into Annabeth’s side as he glowers at her. “Sorry, she forgets to turn her filter on when she first wakes up.” 

Annabeth murmurs an apology, yawning as she tries to scoot out of Percy’s elbowing range. A difficult task in a twin bed. Nico lets Annabeth’s comment slide, but only because he has more important things to attend to.

“Can we leave for camp? Like, now? I have something I need to do,” Nico says, staring Percy down and hoping he gets the message. There’s a fifty-fifty shot of the fried brain cells in his head making the connection to their conversation last night. 

“What time is it?” Percy asks instead of reading Nico’s mind. Rude. 

“I don’t know— It’s urgent, Percy! I have to go talk to Rachel.” That gets their attention. Percy and Annabeth exchange a look Nico can’t decipher, eyes wide.

“Yep, got it. To camp we go! Nothing like a nice early morning drive!” Percy scrambles to kick the covers off and hops up, snatching his car keys from the bedside table. Oh hello, Percy’s boxers with little cartoon lobsters on them— Nico slams the door shut before he sees any more than he already has. 

“Clothes first, babe!” he hears Annabeth laugh.

“Aw, shit— Sorry! I’ll meet you in the living room!” Percy calls out, also laughing, but Nico is already speed walking back to the guest room, trying to outpace the image that has seared itself into his mind. 

Nico darts into the room and shuts the door behind him as quickly as he can, closing his eyes and slumping against the doorframe. He lets out a deep sigh, running a shaky, clammy hand down his face. Get it together, di Angelo, Nico tries to pep-talk himself. Everything is going to be fine. Will and Percy are going to get him back to camp to talk to Rachel, and everything will flow from there. No use in worrying about it until he gets his prophecy. 

“Nico… What’s going on?” Nico's eyes snap open. Will has him cornered against the door, hovering close and fidgeting with the skull ring on his necklace. Nico isn’t used to seeing Will so… un-put-together , blue eyes wild and hair still a mess from just waking up. Behind Will, his stickered suitcase is in disarray on the bed in a poor attempt to quickly pack his things. Nico’s gaze catches Jason's— Will’s — sword, leaning against the bed, ready to go. 

“We have to get back to camp.” Nico reaches into his pocket to fiddle with his sun coin, only to find he still hasn’t remembered to take it out of his bag. 

“Yeah, I got that,” Will says, a burst of laughter escaping that hinges on manic. “What happened? Did you have a dream or did something happen last night? You look like you didn’t sleep at all!” He crowds further into Nico’s space, worrying a thumb across the bags under Nico’s eyes.

Nico’s heart sinks like a rock into the pit of his stomach. He can’t tell him. No matter how much he wants to. All it takes is a glance out of the window, a glimpse of the still-night sky, and Nico is reminded of who is out there, listening. Nico catches Will’s wrist in his hand, turns and presses his forehead into Will’s cool palm. A silent apology. “I can’t tell you,” Nico whispers, gaze flicking up to the ceiling and trying with every fiber in his being to beam into Will’s head that he’s afraid the gods can hear them. “Just, trust me? Please? I need to see Rachel first, and then we can talk about it.” 

Will’s eyes go as wide as dinner plates. Message received. 

“Okay, alright—” Will takes a step backwards, processing this new information. Will’s shock fades into determination, a look that sits easily across his newly squared features like it belongs there. “Rachel Elizabeth Dare, A.S.A.P. You got it.” He gives Nico finger guns and turns back to his suitcase, on a mission. 

Glued to his spot, Nico watches his boyfriend struggle to stuff his clothes into his suitcase with the same tactic that’s getting him nowhere, because he can’t believe it was that easy. Will trusted him, just like that.

No argument, no concern, no demands to know what Nico was going to need from him. Nico asked, and Will said yes. 

Warmth blooms in his chest, spreads down his arms and legs and up into his cheeks. It threatens to overwhelm him, but he takes a deep breath, pushing the feeling down for later. Because he has a job to do.

And that job is to get to Camp Half-Blood as quickly as possible and demand to speak to the Oracle of Delphi herself, Rachel.  

Except, first — Nico rushes over to his suitcase, waiting packed by the door, and flips it down so he can open it and root around inside. He’s almost positive he knows which pair of pants he left it in… Aha! Nico pulls the gold coin out of his original pair of jeans. He runs a thumb across the texture of the intricate sun, letting the warm feeling flow back over him. Everything is going to work out. He has Will, and he even has Percy Jackson himself as backup if he needs it. Jason is coming back. Nico will succeed. 

Nico takes another deep breath, holds it like Will showed him to, and lets it out to the count of seven. He folds everything back up nice and tidy, and tucks the coin into the front pocket of his current pair of pants. Where it belongs. Because Nico has a feeling he’ll be nervous more often than not, today. 

When he zips his suitcase back up and stands, he finds Will staring at him, paused elbow deep in his own packing, an unreadable expression on his face. 

“What?” Nico asks. 

“Nothing.” Will shakes his head, turning back to the mess in front of him, a tiny warm smile on his face. He’s glowing. “Nothing at all.”

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

They almost make it out of the house scott-free. Key word: almost. 

It’s six in the morning by the time they’re all in the driveway, the sky just starting to pale with the incoming threat of sunrise. Annabeth is playing Tetris on hard mode with their luggage. It’s a fun challenge (or, at least Annabeth seems to think so), seeing as they’re taking Percy’s tiny powder blue Prius and Nico has an entirely new wardrobe to bring back to camp. She gave up ten minutes ago on getting it all just in the trunk. No amount of Athena’s blessings was going to make that happen, so half of their stuff is piled behind the driver’s seat. Jason’s sword— Will’s sword (Nico is really struggling to remember that) balances precariously on top.

All of the other demigods are giving Nico the courtesy of silence, in varying levels of still-asleep. Annabeth is wide-awake and focused on squeezing a backpack where there really shouldn’t be space, too concentrated to talk. Percy hovers by the driver’s seat door, shifting from foot to foot and stifling yawns, occasionally shaking his hands or wiping at his face to keep himself awake and entertained. Will is fairing the worst of all— children of Apollo are not meant to be up before their dad. As soon as they all meandered outside, he sat on the cold concrete of the driveway, knees tucked up to his chin and eyes fighting to stay open. He’s shivering in the crisp early morning air. Nico grabbed a jacket as he speed-packed, prepared for the cool October morning, but Will didn’t get the memo— still committing to a t-shirt and those gods-forsaken cargo shorts. He can’t watch Will shiver any longer— Nico takes his new jean jacket off and hands it to Will. He’ll survive. 

His boyfriend blinks up at him, trying to register the action in his sleep-addled mind. Even in the dark, Nico can see the blush spread under freckles when it finally clicks, and he takes the jacket from Nico with a sheepish look. He slips it on, immediately sighing in relief at the warmth it provides.

”What a gentleman,” Will mutters, laughing lightly at Nico. It’s Nico’s turn to blush, rolling his eyes and turning away. 

“You can’t help me on quests if you’re a popsicle, Solace,” Nico says, folding his arms across his chest and staring at the wide street outside the Jackson’s doorstep. 

The car door slamming shut gets everyone’s attention. Annabeth rounds the back of the Prius, a self-satisfied look on her face. 

“Should be good to go. You boys be safe, okay?” She leans in to give Percy a kiss. It looks sweet, but Nico can see the furrow in her brow and the tense of her shoulders. There’s something coming, they can all feel it— and Nico hates that each time they say goodbye, even for a moment, there’s always a chance it could be the last. It happened to them once, when Hera plucked Percy from his life and dumped him halfway across the United States in California. A random time, a random day. No signs, no warning. It could happen again. Guilt creeps up Nico's neck for wishing they would hurry it up. (But he still kind of wishes they would hurry it up. He’s feeling selfish today, sue him.)

“Last time I drove to camp, everything went perfectly fine, thank you very much!” Percy laughs, voice still scratchy with sleep. 

“I don’t know if I would classify getting stuck in ditch, fighting plague monsters, making Apollo and Meg walk the rest of the way, convincing the cops to help you push your car out of said ditch after almost getting arrested, and then having a nasty cold from the plague monsters for three weeks as perfectly fine,” Annabeth says, stifling her laughter into the side of Percy’s neck.

“I mean… it was definitely one of the less eventful drives to camp I’ve done!” Percy presses one last kiss to Annabeth’s cheek before they part. “I’ll be back before you know it,” he whispers, sincere and sweet. 

Annabeth smiles at Percy, squishing the edges of her gray eyes. “Of course. Now get in the car before Nico slits your throat, please. If you make him wait any longer, he’ll end up being the most dangerous thing you encounter on your drive.”

“I know, I know,” Percy laughs and rolls his eyes. Nico misses when the other boy used to actually find him scary.  

They all find their respective car doors— Percy at the driver’s seat, Nico in the front riding shotgun, and Will in the back behind him. And that’s when their quick escape gets squandered.

The front door to Percy’s house opens. 

“Percy, honey, did you grab the cookies I made Nico and Will?” Sally’s voice floats out into the night, and all four demigods whip their heads around to look at Percy’s mom with speed only necessary for battle. She’s standing in the entrance to the house, Estelle at her hip, still in plaid pajama bottoms and a matching buttoned top, black and gray hair a wavy mess around her face. 

“Uhh…” Percy looks at Annabeth, as if with the powers of their ADHD combined he will be able to remember if he grabbed the cookies. 

“Because the container is in the fridge, but the cookies are gone. Did you put them in a bag? They could have just had the tupperware,” Sally continues, smile lines crinkling at the idea of her son’s silliness. 

But, for once, this was not Percy’s doing. Nico knows exactly where those cookies are: covered with three feet of dirt in Sally’s backyard. 

Nico tries to wipe the panic off of his face as fast as it comes, but it’s too late. Percy catches it out of the corner of his eye. There’s a beat where both boys simply stare at each other— Nico’s wide dark eyes flashing a giant neon guilty sign above his head while the gears in Percy’s head desperately try to move. Percy lifts an eyebrow at Nico, who can only shake his head as minutely as possible while still conveying every ounce of dread he’s feeling. 

Something clicks into place— Percy plasters a smile on his face and looks back at his mom.

“Uh, yeah! That was silly of me. Next time I’ll just give them the container. Thanks, mom,” Percy calls over his shoulder, voice strained. 

Sally looks unconvinced. She squints her eyes at her son, whose shoulders rise and rise to his ears under the pressure of her scrutiny. What a terrible liar. To Sally, at least. Nico has seen Percy lie to a million and a half other people with concerning ease. But his mother? Not a chance. 

He doesn’t speak up, though, so Sally turns the look on Annabeth. She shrugs, raising her hands in an attempt to show she has no idea what’s going on. And in her defense, she doesn’t. No one does. Except for Nico. 

“I don’t know what has you all up at this hour with a sudden change of plans to leave, or what it has to do with my cookies, but you better return to me in one piece. Do you hear me?” Sally points an accusatory finger at Percy, and he lifts his hands in surrender to match Annabeth— the only time Nico has ever seen the both of them wave the white flag. Sally doesn’t stop there, she shifts her pointing to Nico and Will until they, too, join in, hands held in the air. Nico feels very Italian all of the sudden. Surrendering is his birthright, afterall, and he’s never gotten the chance to before. Feels good.

“I’m coming right back home after I drop Nico and Will off. Annabeth isn’t even coming with us. We’re not running off anywhere, I promise,” Percy says, doing his best to keep his tone light, but Nico can hear the concern in his own voice. Knows the pain of having to randomly disappear from his mother’s life for months at a time, with or without warning. 

Sally nods, slowly, shifting Estelle in her grip but not moving her eyes from Will and Nico. “And you two? Are you up to something?” 

Will looks at Nico. Percy looks at Nico. Annabeth looks at Nico. Hells, even Estelle looks at Nico, which isn’t fair because Nico is pretty sure babies can’t even see that far away. 

“Um… no?” Nico says, a grimace inching across his face.

Sally sighs. “Four hours. If you aren’t back in four hours, Annabeth and I are taking the minivan to Camp Half-Blood and I’m finding a way through that barrier whether Chiron likes it or not.”

“Yes ma’am!” Percy salutes his mom, dives in to kiss his girlfriend one last time, and jumps into the car before any other declarations can be made. Nico, who has been ready to hit the road since he opened his eyes an hour ago, dives right in after him. Thankfully getting the memo, Will follows. 

The engine turns, quiet as a hybrid should be. How environmentally conscious. Percy steps on the gas and they back out of the driveway, peeling off into the sunrise. 

They don’t even make it to the first stop sign before Percy brings it up. 

“What did you do to my mom’s cookies?” Percy squints, flicking his eyes back and forth between Nico and the road. Damn. Nico thought he was getting away with that one.

“I ate them?” Nico lies. No one believes him. Which is fair, because he didn’t really bother to try to make it believable. 

“You… voluntarily ate an entire batch of cookies in the middle of the night?” Will leans over the center console, both eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Nico sighs, sinking into his seat. He grabs at his seatbelt for something to ground him, pulling on it until it makes that satisfying clicking sound and gets stuck in place. “No…” He looks away from Will. Yeah, there was no way he was getting away with that one.

“But you did something with them…” Percy thinks out loud, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. Silence, and then recognition flashes across Percy’s face. Uh oh. Percy’s pupils narrow into little pinpoints, tiny boats in vast tumultuous waters, and he takes his eyes off the road to look at Nico— “You didn’t!” 

“Don’t—!” Nico begs, but Percy doesn’t give him a moment to breathe. 

“Did it work? Can you do it again? What did he—”

“Percy!” Nico shouts. “I can’t— stop it! I can’t talk about it.” He looks nervously out of the car window. No lightning or storm clouds in sight. No sounds of thunder either. Phew . “And… And I can’t do it again, okay? But it worked. Sort of. And I need to talk to Rachel about it. No prophecy fulfilling talk before that.” 

“I’m so confused on what this has to do with your mom’s cookies,” Will interjects, looking more and more lost by the second. 

“You know… the thing Nico can do. With the food. And the ground,” Percy says, gesturing with one hand like it should be obvious. Nico can tell he’s trying so hard to not outright say it. But, no matter how much Percy elaborates, it’s not going to help. Because—

“Will has never seen me do that, Percy. He’s not going to know what you’re talking about.” Nico chews at his lower lip, digs his hand into his pocket to turn the coin around between his fingers as he watches Will’s expression. It doesn’t change— still confused. 

“He’s never seen you summo—?!”

“He said we couldn’t talk about it,” Will interrupts, defensive, leaning forward and blocking Percy from Nico’s view. The sudden shift in Will’s tone shocks Nico. It’s the one he uses with Austin, Kayla, and Cecil when they do something particularly stupid in the infirmary, or when Paolo gets a limb cut off again from not paying attention. Like an exhausted parent who won’t be taking no for an answer.

He’s only ever used that tone with Nico once— that day they met again on Half-Blood Hill, when Will told Nico he wasn’t allowed to use his powers again until he’d recovered. They didn’t even know each other. He deserved it, though. Will definitely saved his life. (But Nico will never admit it to his face. Wouldn’t want to inflate Will’s ego lest he end up like Apollo.) 

To hear him use that tone with Percy Jackson— Nico sucks in a fast breath. He is sure they’re finding a different way back to camp. He starts taking stock of how much energy he might have for a shadow travel jump with him and Will. 

But that’s not what happens at all. 

Nico can’t see Percy around Will’s head, but he hears the large breath Percy lets out. Hears the tiny, “Right, yes, sorry,” that Percy says. “I’m just… excited. Give me a second.” Each breath Nico hears Percy take is shaky. In through his nose and out through his mouth. 

Nico really needs to stop forgetting that Percy and Will were friends before he knew either of them.

“We have to trust that Nico has this,” Will says, and Nico’s heart skips a beat. 

“I trust Nico,” Percy insists through his breathing exercise, turning intense eyes on Will. Something passes between them, unsaid, and Nico wishes he could hear it.

“Thanks,” Nico says, trying to gather his thoughts. Thanks doesn’t sum up I’ve been dying to hear you say you trust me since I was 11 . Percy being Percy, hears the hidden message anyways, and grants Nico a guilty smile.

“I’ve doubted you a lot, and all you’ve done is give me reason after reason to trust you,” Percy says, putting his gaze back on the road. “I think it’s about time I stopped doubting.” 

Their lives flash before Nico’s eyes. Convincing Percy to dip in the River Styx. Talking Hades into joining their side in the Titan War at Percy’s prompting. Being forced to promise to lead everyone to the Doors of Death with Percy on the edge of falling in Tartarus. Percy worrying about whether Nico could really deliver the Athena Parthenos to camp. So many times when Percy trusted him with conditions . So many times when he trusted Nico because it was convenient , or beneficial to him, or only at arm's length. And Nico still delivered, each and every time. Because it was Percy he was doing it for. 

Nico is struck with the thought that it’s nothing like the way Jason trusted him— fully and without hesitation. Intrinsically, each time. After Jason’s first act of trust towards Nico, he never looked back. And Nico intends to return that favor tenfold. 

Will settles back in his seat, satisfied that Percy is no longer on the verge of violating Nico’s request, but Nico isn’t watching Will. He’s staring at the profile of Percy’s face. The tiny smile, the excitement twinkling in his eyes. 

“So, you’re doing this,” Percy says under his breath, smile dancing further across his face. 

“If you keep talking, I’m going to kill you, and then you can ask him yourself,” Nico threatens, but he’s laughing a little— he can’t help it. Because Nico may have woken up feeling dread and urgency and nerves— but he’s starting to feel the excitement, too. He’s going to bring Jason back. His best friend. Jason is going to be alive again.

“Wait. Wait, wait, wait—!” Will pushes his face into Nico’s space. His eyes search Nico’s face, scanning for something. Nico watches blue eyes flick this way and that, imagines little lasers building a 3D model of Nico’s face in Will’s head as he does. Analysis complete: “You don’t mean—?!”

“Ah, ah!” Percy chides, laughing and pushing Will back into his seat. “What happened to he said we can’t talk about it, huh?” 

“But!” Will goes to protest, but comes up with nothing. He sinks into his seat in the back and pouts. “I hate both of you.” 

The three of them share a laugh, and Nico thinks of how lucky he is to have this. A year and a half ago, if you told him this is what his life would be like — sitting in the car with Will Solace and Percy Jackson laughing and talking — he would have told you that you were crazy. Children of Hades don’t get joy. They don’t get friendship. They don’t get trust. A lump forms in his throat. Nico has all of those things here. And he’s going to have Jason back, too. Because now that he’s had a taste of what life could be like... the universe is giving Nico an inch, and he’s taking a mile.

“I’m turning on the radio. If we talk, I’m going to want to keep bringing it up,” Percy announces, already fiddling with the dial until a popular song filters through the radio, rebellious and catchy. Percy doesn’t bother to keep the volume low. He sings obnoxiously and turns the music up to cover it.

Nico and Will exchange exasperated looks, laughing to themselves from their seats. Nico wishes he was sitting in the back with Will— he should have told Annabeth to pile their extra stuff up in the front. Percy could have sat next to the pile of their belongings so Nico could lean on Will’s shoulder for the drive. 

And then the song changes, and Will knows this one, so he starts to sing along too. It’s even more off key than Percy and Nico can’t help watching them sing together with a twinkle in his eyes. Nico thinks of Sequoyah High School, for some reason. Is what life would be like, as a high school mortal? Watching his friend and his boyfriend sing car duets and driving nowhere at all? And then a song Nico knows starts. And Percy knows that Nico knows it.

Mischievous green eyes round on Nico, grin shark-like.

“I woke up it was seven, I waited ‘til eleven, just to figure out that no one would call,” Percy sings at him, eyebrows wiggling. Nico shakes his head. He is not singing in the car.

And then Will leans forward in his seat again, eyes equally playful. “I think I’ve got a lot of friends but I don’t hear from them. What’s another night all alone,” Will sings into Nico’s ear. They pause, both staring at Nico with twin expectant expressions. And then the chorus starts— and Nico’s resolve crumbles. 

“I’m just a kid, and life is a nightmare. I’m just a kid, I know that it’s not fair,” they all sing at once, laughing and screaming and sounding absolutely terrible. Nico is surprised Apollo doesn’t smite them on the spot. 

“Nobody cares ‘cause I’m alone and the world is having more fun than me, tonight!” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Singing provides a small reprieve to Nico’s nerves. They kill the entire hour car ride singing along to Percy’s favorite oldies but goodies. They even play Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones for Nico, and he grins like a maniac through every word. 

They pull off of the road and start driving into the forest, Percy determined to get them all the way up to the camp’s border in his front-wheel drive only Prius. It’s not meant for off-roading. Nico feels like the inside of his skull is being put through a blender. 

And when they finally reach Half-Blood Hill, Nico would say he’s never been so happy to see Thalia’s tree in his life, but that would be a lie. That honor belongs to the moment he materialized out of the shadows on Half-Blood Hill after making sure the Athena Parthenos was safe. He thought he was never going to see the light of day again after he initiated that jump. 

Not a healthy line of thinking right now. He doesn’t want to ruin his decent mood with the thought of what would be of him now if he never made it to the other side.

Percy pulls up to the bottom of the hill and throws it into park, and Nico is surprised that he doesn’t try to go up it. So there are limits to what Percy thinks the Prius can do. 

“See! Safe and sound. Just like I promised Annabeth.” Percy turns around and grins at the two of them. 

“My insides say otherwise,” Will groans, green in the face. 

“Drama queen,” Nico says, opening his car door. They’re so close he can taste it. He just needs to drag his belongings to the Hades cabin, dump them unceremoniously on the ground, and sprint straight to Rachel’s cave. She better be here. She was here when Nico left— full time repainting her murals and re-decorating the cave since she got the Oracle of Delphi back. 

“It’s so unfair that you don’t get carsick!” Will stumbles as he gets out, having to put one hand on the door to balance himself. 

“Sounds like a personal problem.” Nico cracks a grin, already anticipating the way Will shoves at him and sticks his tongue out. Nico laughs, still riding the high of their fun in the car. When Percy hops out of the driver’s seat, Nico gives him a funny look. 

“We can grab our own bags,” Nico says.

“Oh no, I’m coming with you,” Percy says. “I might trust you, but I'm still nosey. Plus, I haven’t seen Rachel since…” Percy pauses. He gets a distant look in his eyes and doesn’t elaborate, making his way to the back of the car.

“You’re going to leave your car… here?” Will asks, bewildered. It’s not like a monster is going to hotwire Percy’s car. Although… Nico has seen weirder things.

“She’ll be fine!” Percy pats the roof of his car as he walks by, popping the trunk open. They exchange a look, Will clearly trying to communicate he’s crazy with his eyes, and Nico shakes his head. He’s Percy , is what he is. 

The three of them make quick work of undoing Annabeth’s packing job, and start the trek up Half-Blood Hill. They need to get Will a sheath for Jason’s gladius. Watching him walk around with it balanced under his arm while struggling to hold his bags is going to give Nico a heart attack.

To their surprise, Chiron and Rachel are already waiting for them at the top of the hill. 

Today’s brand of Rachel is wearing long handmade earrings, a well-loved oddly patterned sweater over an off-white button down, and a long flowy skirt. Her meticulously cared-for copious amounts of red hair curls outwards for what feels like an eternity away from her face, her eyes glowing green and freckles smattered like stars across her face and skin. Expensive looking brown leather gloves stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the outfit, but Rachel makes it work. She makes everything work. Sweatpants and a sweatshirt, fancy evening wear, her painting clothes, outfits that look straight out of fashion magazines— Nico has seen her wear it all. He considers asking her for fashion advice, forgetting for a brief moment that he has much more pressing questions to ask her.

“I was wondering when you’d show your face again,” Rachel says to Percy the second they’re within speaking distance, raising a teasing eyebrow at him. Her mouth quirks into a smirk.

“Is now the part where I beg on my knees for forgiveness for not coming to see you before leaving for New Rome?” Percy jokes, setting down the luggage he was helping Nico and Will carry. He pulls Rachel into a crushing hug.

“You know, I’ll forgive you just this once. But only because I really didn’t think you’d make it to college. Not because you’re stupid, but because I was sure you’d be dead by now,” Rachel’s smirk morphs into a full grin, unable to keep the laughter out of her sparkling green eyes. 

“Ouch!” Percy holds his hands over his heart, feigning like he’s been stabbed. 

“So, what’s with the welcoming party?” Nico asks, setting his own bag down and looking back and forth between Chiron and Rachel. Rachel’s all smiles and jokes and light jabs with Percy, but Chiron looks like someone just punched him in the gut and then told him Harley has a new idea for a camp-wide activity. 

“Rachel has a message for you, and we were hoping to catch you away from prying eyes,” Chiron says, hooves stamping nervously. 

“A message ,” Will says, disbelieving. “You mean a prophecy .” 

“Well, yes,” Chiron looks away from Will, guilty. Much like Chiron has always had a soft spot for Percy as his star demigod, he’s also always had a soft spot for Will, his star medic. The camp wouldn’t function without Will Solace. They both get away with talking back to Chiron far more than anyone else would even dare to consider. 

“I thought you did that in your weird little cave, these days,” Percy elbows at Rachel’s side. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know what I do in my weird little cave.” She raises a hand to flip him off, multitude of beaded bracelets clicking and shifting the process. 

It’s nice to see Rachel in a good mood, despite the circumstances. After everything with Apollo and then the last prophecy she had to deliver to Nico— she hasn’t exactly been in good spirits for well over a year now. Having her back at camp smiling and painting and enjoying her role again has been a welcome sight.

“Please, Rachel—” Chiron tries to get her attention again, still flitting around with nervous energy. He looks moments away from a meltdown. 

“The Oracle of Delphi will arrive when she wants to , Chiron—” Rachel turns to the centaur, annoyed. 

“Now, we both know that’s not necessarily how that works for repeating prophecies,” Chiron starts to argue, but just as he does, Rachel’s eyes meet Nico’s. And The Oracle of Delphi arrives. Right when she wants to.

For the second time in just a few short months, Nico witnesses Rachel’s eye roll back into her skull and go inky black. Second time must be the charm, because Nico isn’t fazed in the slightest. The smell of sulfur fills the air as green smoke pours out of her every orifice. Since they’re outside, it’s not nearly as bad as last time, which is great news for Nico’s lungs. Percy rushes behind her, arms out for when she inevitably collapses at the end of her spiel. The raspy old voice of The Oracle of Delphi delivers Nico his prophecy: 

Thrice found hero, four eyes blind,

By Juno's chosen, Olympus divides;

Guardian of Rome, love hard won,

The grace of gods, champion of none.

She falls backwards as predicted, and Percy gently lowers her to the ground. “Well, that was quick! I have snacks in the car, hold on,” Percy says and passes off holding her in a sitting position to Will while he jogs back to his car.

“You seem to be a magnet for prophecies these days, Nico,” Chiron says, pacing back and forth anxiously. He’s pale and sweaty, eyeing Rachel nervously like she might suddenly reanimate and start spewing new words and smoke. 

“Really? I didn’t notice,” Nico jokes, flat, but the pointed look Will gives him makes him snap his mouth shut before he makes any more. Right— they’re in high spirits because they know what’s going on, but no one else does. Nico probably shouldn’t be cracking jokes at Chiron when the poor centaur thinks the world could be ending again. 

Percy makes it back to them, not even breaking a sweat. A snack bag of mini Oreos in one hand and a water bottle in the other. He’s just in time for Rachel to stir and blink her eyes back open. 

“Water—” she reaches for the bottle in Percy’s hand, but he pulls it back. 

“Who’s your favorite demigod?” Percy teases. The look Rachel gives him is vicious, sharp green eyes barely visible under her dizzy eyelids

“Annabeth,” Rachel answers, voice still sore.

Percy laughs and hands the water bottle over. Or, really, Rachel snatches it from him the second he brings it back in her range. “That was the right answer,” he says as Rachel chugs down the water like a little kid who has been playing outside for too long.

He sits down in the grass next to her, and with all three of the other teens sitting, Nico decides to follow suit and plops down right where he was standing.

“So… we should talk about the prophecy, right?” Will asks from behind Rachel, still supporting her weight. 

“Yes. Rachel first said it on Monday, in the afternoon. Thankfully she was at the Big House with me, and not out and about, or I’m sure there would have been camp-wide panic,” Chiron says, tail flicking. He hasn’t stopped doing little stomps with his hooves, clearly irritated. 

Will, Percy, and Nico all exchange looks at the mention of Monday. The day Piper gifted Nico Jason’s sword. The day Nico had his vision of Jason’s death. Nico wonders if they happened at the same time. Their little exchange doesn’t go unnoticed— both Chiron and Rachel give the three boys questioning looks. 

“Well, what were the lines again? Thrice found hero, four eyes blind …?” Percy starts, completely ignoring them and trying to remember the words. He waits for Rachel’s confirmation before he speaks again. “ Thrice found hero is definitely referring to Jason, right? Four eyes blind … you don’t think that’s a reference to when Piper and I started calling Jason four eyes when he got glasses, do you?” Percy laughs. 

“I hope not,” Nico laughs. That would be so embarrassing… Imagine getting dunked on for wearing glasses by the Oracle of Delphi. 

“I also thought thrice found hero was referring to Jason,” Rachel says. “I’ve been having a lot of visions about him. Mostly just visions about his life when he was alive… Things like him being left to Lupa or traveling with Leo and Piper, and one particularly strange one of him trying to eat a stapler, but they have to mean something .” Rachel looks to Nico. He rubs awkwardly at the back of his neck, but doesn’t confirm nor deny.

“ By Juno’s chosen, Olympus divides, is the part I find most worrisome,” Chiron says. “Three wars in one generation of demigods’ lifetime is too many.” 

“Olympus divides doesn’t have to mean war, right?” Will asks, also starting to panic, now. Which Nico supposes is a valid concern, since Will is Juno’s new chosen. It could very well be talking about him. And Will is not the type of demigod to enjoy being at the center of an Olympus-wide war. 

“Is Juno’s chosen not Jason? I do not understand how one already dead demigod could be causing so much strife. Has he not been through enough already that he cannot even enjoy the afterlife?” Chiron looks distressed at the thought. He looks up at the sky, pain and a little bit of anger in his usually kind brown eyes, and Nico is reminded of just how many demigods Chiron has seen come and go. Yet… he still feels the pain of each one when they die— mourns for them all and gives each of them a spot in his heart. It’s a wonder he isn’t more tired, more jaded. Nico is sure he would be.

“It could also be about me, actually,” Will speaks up. “I may have accidentally acquired a… blessing .” Will is careful with his wording. Percy, Nico, and Will all look at the golden sword Will set down in the grass next to him. Chiron and Rachel follow their lines of sight. 

“Didn’t that belong to Jason?” Chiron asks. They all cringe.

“It did , yeah…” Will says.

Chiron opens his mouth. To protest or worry or what, Nico doesn't want to find out. “We’ve already talked to Juno,” Nico interrupts. He can tell Will and Percy are being careful about what they say, leaving the decision of how much information they give up to Nico, which he greatly appreciates. How kind of them to respect his right to remain silent. 

“She asked me to do her a favor but didn’t say what it was. And then deemed Will her new champion when Will used Jason’s sword in a fight we got into on the way back from Oklahoma.” This he feels like he can say— Zeus already knows Juno visited him, if the giant streak of lightning and crashing thunder was any indication. And there’s no way Typhon’s presence didn’t go undetected. 

Chiron’s face goes even paler. Nico worries he might faint. 

“Ah, so the queen of the gods is at it again,” he says, feigning humor but sounding a whole lot like he might pass out at any moment. 

“Yeah, everybody’s fucking favorite,” Percy says with so much sarcasm and hatred Nico’s not sure how he even got the words out.

“The rest of the prophecy is where Chiron and I got a little lost. Guardian of Rome, love hard won. The grace of gods, champion of none ,” Rachel repeats, now sitting up fully on her own. She’s tearing through the bag of Oreos Percy brought her. “The only thing I could find through some research was that the Guardian of Rome is likely Lupa.” She looks to Percy for confirmation, and he nods, dark hair falling into his face. 

“Not sure what she has to do with this, though. We haven’t seen anything from her. Only Juno,” Percy says and reaches a hand out for Rachel to drop Oreos into. They get into a fight about it when she refuses to share. Chiron sighs in annoyance and returns to pacing so he doesn’t have to watch Percy and Rachel bicker. 

“The thing I do not get is there are no directions. Usually the prophecy has some clear path of action or a first step. How am I meant to send someone on a quest—“ Chiron starts, but Nico interrupts him for the second time this morning.

”I’ve got it,” he says. 

Everyone goes silent and looks at Nico. Nailed it.

“You’ve… got it?” Chiron repeats, concern written across his face. 

“Yep. I’m good. I’ll be gone for a bit but I’ll be right back, promise,” Nico gives Chiron the steadiest thumbs up he can manage, but it must not be very convincing, because Chiron is looking more and more worried by the second. 

“Nico, if there is information you are withholding, we can only help you if you share it,” Chiron says.

”Yep.” Nico keeps his thumb up. Rachel laughs. 

“You’re so impertinent,” she says to Nico. “He learned that from you.” Rachel points an accusatory finger at Percy. 

“I think it’s just a child of the Big Three thing,” Percy says, chuckling to himself. “You should bring someone with you, though. Going alone is a bad idea.” Percy gives Nico a pointed look, and Nico knows there’s no use in arguing. 

“Well, I’m definitely going,” Will says, matching the expression on Percy’s face, the both of them daring Nico to say otherwise.

”Yeah, I know,” Nico rolls his eyes and feigns annoyance, but in reality those pesky little skeletal butterflies are fluttering around his stomach again. Get you a man who drops everything to go on quests with you, or whatever it is that Austin always says. 

“I do hate it when you’re gone…” Chiron looks at Will, almost as if he’s trying to guilt Will into staying. Anger boils up in Nico’s stomach, ripping the wings off of all of his skeletal butterflies.

“Consider it a practice run for when Will leaves camp. He can’t be here forever just so you can coast easy while he’s running the infirmary, you know,” Nico bites, and everyone pulls back, shocked. Oops— he probably shouldn’t have said that. Will doesn’t even know if that’s what he wants to do yet. 

Percy and Rachel are looking at him appraisingly, Percy even mouths damn at him and color rushes to Nico’s cheeks. Will’s gaze is flicking nervously between Nico and Chiron, who has gone bright red in the face and hasn’t taken a breath since Nico spoke. Nobody moves.

”I suppose you’re right, aren’t you?” Chiron finally sighs, turning around to face camp. “Well, do take whatever supplies you need for your quest and let me know when you two head out. I will be at the Big House. It was good to see you, Percy.”

And then he’s trotting off. 

“That’s one way to tell him I’m considering going to school.” Will gives Nico a strange smile, eyes nervous but there’s a spark of something else there, too. Excitement? Bewilderment? Nico can’t place it. But Will doesn’t look upset, so Nico won’t look a gift centaur in the mouth by questioning it. 

“Chiron forgets we have lives outside of camp, sometimes,” Percy says, clapping Will on the shoulder. “Especially year-rounders. He had a full on meltdown when Annabeth came with me to finish our senior year of high school.” 

“Oh gods, I remember that,” Rachel groans. “He would not shut up about missing her for weeks .” 

Will looks terrified, but he nods. “No reason to worry about it right now,” Will says. “We have a quest to go on.”

Chapter Text

There’s no one around to greet them when Will and Nico finish their slow march up to Camp Half-Blood, suitcases in hand. Lively Winter sessions are a thing of the past. With two wars under their belts, most of the demigods at Camp Half-Blood decided to try their hand at going home at the end of Summer. Not to mention a majority of the demigods from the Titan War all left to go to college, Percy included. Those demigods leading the war were so young… Nico can’t believe he and Will lived through that even younger.

A few campers still come and go as the months drag on, like Kayla and Austin, or stay all Summer because they have nowhere else to go, like Paolo (and Nico). But the son of Hebe must be hole-ing up in his cabin, because there’s not a demigod in sight in the common areas. Good. Nico doesn’t want to see Paolo anyways. He ends up in the infirmary a little too often for Nico’s liking… and only when Will is on duty, somehow. 

“This is weird,” Will announces, standing on the front porch of the Big House, Chiron nowhere in sight. It is eerily quiet. Nico nods, concern painting his features. “It’s just like when we came back last time. Everybody has somewhere else to be.” Will’s shoulders deflate. It’s times like these, seeing Will so sad to be without their friends, that Nico wonders why Will doesn’t try going home to his mom. 

Not that she’s at home, which is the whole reason Will doesn’t try. Because his mom is always on tour, jumping from place to place. Not exactly a demigod friendly lifestyle, especially for a demigod like Will who isn’t a fighter. Plus, Will has said on many occasions that he refuses to leave Nico behind. And how could Nico protest something so sweet? 

So a camp of three during Summer they’ll be. Nico, Will, …and Paolo. 

“I forgot your siblings were only visiting,” Nico admits, a looming feeling crawling up his spine. Austin was right. There was no measles outbreak while they were gone. Or World War Three (yet). Or really, really bad flu season. 

Because nobody is here. 

“Yeah, me too… makes me wonder what I did all that prepping for in the infirmary,” Will laughs. “All that stress for nothing!” 

Nico gives his boyfriend a look that says I told you so, earning a shove from Will. 

“Don’t give me that look. I haven’t seen the infirmary yet. It could still be a mess!” Will sasses, but he’s smiling wide. “Knowing Cecil, half of my supplies are gone. I need to fill out an inventory report and compare it to the one I did before we left.” 

“You go survey the damage. I’m going to take all of… this… to my cabin.” Nico lifts the absurd amount of bags in his hands. His new clothes. Which need to be put in his cabin. With the rest of his things. 

His very very limited things. 

“Want to trade tasks?” Will asks, looking equally distraught at the open door to the Big House as Nico feels about unpacking his suitcase. 

Nico opens his mouth to say yes, but then he remembers what the inventory list for the infirmary looks like. He tried to help Will with it once. It was fourteen pages long and full of words Nico couldn’t decipher and Nico got so frustrated he summoned a skeleton to help him (and immediately got in trouble for both using his powers and because the skeleton did not know how to write, and was just making nonsensical marks on the page). 

“Nope. I’m good,” Nico says. He gathers his bags back up in his hands, ready to start the precarious journey to his cabin, but a soft touch on his shoulder stops him. Nico looks over his shoulder, and is rewarded when Will leans in to leave a soft kiss against his mouth. 

Nico blinks a few times. “Was that all?” 

“Yep!” Will giggles. “See you later, Dark Lord.” 

“What does that make you? Dork Lord?” Nico snickers back.

“How dare— ” Will tries to defend himself, but he starts giggling again halfway through, and doesn’t even manage the third word in his sentence before they’re both doubling over with laughter. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

The heavy stone door to Nico’s cabin creaks open with disuse. He shoulders his way inside, dumping his things on the ground as soon as he’s cleared the threshold. The door wastes no time slamming shut behind him. 

And for the first time in over a week, Nico is alone.

He already misses the endless sound of his friend's voices in the background.

Being back is… strange. The air is stale and cold. The interior of his cabin is as dark and gloomy as he left it, except now there’s a small layer of dust over everything to match. Really makes the place feel like an abandoned haunted mansion. 

How comforting. Exactly the kind of place everyone wants to come home to. Great stuff for Nico’s chronic depression.

Nico sighs and sets to work. He peels the black covers off of his black bed and shakes them out, flips his black pillows, and straightens out his black sheets. Looks good to Nico. He doesn’t own anything to dust with, so he grabs an old mismatched sock with holes in it and wipes down the worst of the spots: the dressers, the corners of the bunk beds, the unnecessary amounts of candelabras. After he has sufficiently procrastinated tackling his new clothing problem, Nico is left standing in the center of his now-clean cabin, facing his mountain of bags. 

Unfortunately, as much as Nico would love to summon some help and flop into bed to watch ghostly servants fold his clothes, if he’s going to sell the whole shadow-travel straight to the Underworld thing to Will, he needs to conserve his energy. Which means Nico is doing this the old-fashioned way. 

Will would be proud.

Nico walks up to his dresser and opens the drawers to evaluate the situation. All of them are empty except for the two small drawers at the top. One for undergarments and one for clothes. If furniture could talk, Nico imagines the dresser would be very excited to serve a purpose other than holding socks, underwear, two pairs of pants, and four t-shirts. 

Nico dumps each bag full of purchases and any still-clean clothes from his suitcase out onto the floor. That probably makes them no longer clean, but Nico can’t be bothered to care.

How the Hells is he going to get it all into the dresser? Surely it won’t fit…? Why did he let Piper convince him to buy this much?  

Folding and loading and folding and loading occupies Nico for at least an hour. Really, it’s deciding where he wants everything to go that takes him the longest. And either Nico is so far removed from a proper amount of clothing or the dresser is enchanted, but it all fits. 

Knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock.

Nico drops the jewelry he was sorting through and runs to open the door. Desperate to be saved from the wardrobe monster he created. When he does, it’s exactly who he was expecting it to be. 

Sun blond hair, sky blue eyes, bubbly smile, freckled and rosy cheeks—

“Miss me?” Will jokes, sliding past Nico and letting himself into the cabin. 

“Why did I buy so much clothing?” Nico groans instead of answering, following behind Will to flop onto the lower bunk of his bed. Little particles of dust kick up from the duvet in a puff where Nico lands. Will laughs at Nico’s suffering, the evil fucker, and flops down on top of Nico. “Oof—” Nico giggles as his boyfriend wiggles around to get comfortable, settling into a cuddle that is essentially Will acting as a weighted blanket. 

“Did you need something?” Nico asks as Will buries his face against Nico’s bare neck and heaves in a deep, content breath. 

“There were forty seven boxes of hospital gowns missing from the infirmary,” Will whines into Nico’s skin. “Forty. Seven. Boxes. That I now have to beg Chiron to re-order.” 

“What could Cecil possibly need forty seven boxes of hospital gowns for?” Nico laughs, half at Cecil’s ridiculousness and half at how dramatic Will is being.

“I don’t even know, ” Will says, giving up on holding any of his body weight and going limp on top of Nico, pressing them together. 

“So… you didn’t need something from me?” Nico raises an eyebrow at his deflated boyfriend. It’s pointless, though. Will’s eyes are squeezed shut, arms wrapped around Nico like he’s debating falling asleep right here, right now.

“My cabin is empty,” Will whispers, muffled by Nico’s t-shirt, all the joking gone from his voice. Ah, that makes sense. If Nico knows one thing, it’s that Will hates when the Apollo cabin is empty. Reminds him of worse times— of when the Apollo cabin lost nearly everyone during the Titan War. Lonely little Will, head counselor to none. 

“Well, I don’t know if you can stay here… the Hades cabin is clearly overflowing with campers,” Nico says, smile creeping into his words. Nico is glad Will can’t see him. He can feel how uncomfortable and wobbly the smile sits across his face. 

“You’re the worst,” Will laughs back, poking Nico in the side. Nico’s smile fades into something softer. They lay there, warm and comfortable, enjoying the silence. Nico’s glad that even though they’re back at camp, he doesn’t have to give up this new step with Will— now that he has in-bed cuddling, Nico isn’t sure he could give it up again. 

Will’s even breathing is the only noise in the cabin. Nico’s brain can’t help but stray back to their prophecy and all the things he still has to do before they can leave to get Jason. There’s so much to plan, so many questions and conflicts still circling around his head. 

And then there’s the prophecy itself…

Thrice found hero, four eyes blind,

By Juno's chosen, Olympus divides;

Guardian of Rome, love hard won,

The grace of gods, champion of none.

Their prophecy has its pros. Nico is pretty sure he’s guaranteed to succeed in resurrecting Jason. No where does the prophecy mention it directly, which is usually a good sign. No new is good news, or however the saying goes.

It also has its cons, though. No direct mentions of Nico’s plan to bring Jason back could mean that it’s only the beginning… and Nico would very much like to grab Jason, resurrect him, and be done with quests for the next five years. On top of that, Olympus dividing would be very bad indeed. And if it’s at Will’s hands… Nico can’t imagine how he’ll take that. There’s nothing Will hates more than seeing his peers forced to fight— any scenario where Will can’t save everyone is a nightmare scenario for him.

“What’cha thinkin’?” Will’s eyes don’t even open. “I can feel the gears in your head turning.”

“Wha— How?” That was creepily accurate, even for Will.

Will hums. “Your heart rate increased, you were manually breathing, and your blood pressure spiked.” 

Nico rolls his eyes, but can’t help the smile that tugs at his mouth at his boyfriend's antics. He stares at the bunk bed above him, reaches a hand up to pull at the thread-bare fabric separating them from the mattress above. A photo Lou Ellen took of him and Will out on the lake, silhouettes in the distance, is tucked between the wood slats. Thankfully, the photo is from far enough away that you can’t tell Nico was clutching onto the canoe for dear life. That would probably ruin the serene vibe of the photo.

Nico runs a hand across the glossy surface. Will shifts to the side, cheek coming to rest on Nico’s boney chest. Silence settles over them again as Nico considers what to say, staring at the photo.

“Are you sure you want to come with me?” Nico asks, voice quiet like he can leave the silence intact and still have this conversation.

Blond curls bounce into view as Will lifts his head up just barely to look Nico in the eyes. “I wouldn’t have offered it if I didn’t want to,” Will insists. “We’re a team. If you’re going on a quest, I’m coming with you. Plus, someone has to make sure you eat, sleep, and get up at a decent hour.” Will’s eyes sparkle at the end. There was a time when that joke rubbed Nico wrong. It made him feel like everyone thought he needed Will. As if Nico hadn’t survived on his own without him for fourteen years prior. But now Nico knows Will knows that he doesn’t need him, and that’s enough. Will knows how strong Nico is. Has told Nico over and over how much he feels like he relies on Nico. 

Except, with that new fancy sword of his, Will might not need Nico so much anymore— Nico laughs to himself. As if Will could ever be dragged to the sword fighting arena to practice with his gladius enough to no longer need Nico in a fight.

“As long as you're sure,” Nico says, giving Will one last out in case he needs it. Nico still isn’t 100% confident in why Will is willing to let Nico tow him along on all the shit he gets caught up in. 

“I mean, I won’t lie to you, it’s a lot. I made it to fifteen years old without ever going on an official camp quest and now I feel like it’s unending!” Will laughs. “It’s kind of fun, though. I never thought I’d get to go on quests, as the camp healer. Much less hear a prophecy that might be about me! Makes me feel like I’m worth more than just running the infirmary.” Will rests his head back down onto Nico’s chest, right over his heart. His legs are dangling off the end of the bed, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it. Will closes his eyes lightly, and Nico wonders if he’s listening to the beat of Nico’s heart. Listening for more secrets in his vitals. Nico hopes Will can hear it when he thinks: You are worth more than the infirmary. And I’ll prove it to you, when we go to school. That we’re both worth more than our powers.  

“Questing can be a lot, yeah,” Nico says, wrapping his arms around Will’s shoulders. “But it’s a lot easier when you’re with me.” 

Will’s smile could light an entire city. He pushes himself up on his hands, hovering over Nico’s face, and Nico blushes red at the sight— Will’s blond hair, getting longer every day, falls over his face in a waterfall. Tan cheeks dust pink over his freckles and his smile burns blindingly white, blue eyes bright and playful. He puts a hand on Nico’s face and leans in for a kiss, but Nico turns his away.

“This is very against camp rules, William!” Nico laughs, pushing at Will’s chest. 

“We’ve been breaking camp rules since the second you closed the cabin door behind me!” Will rolls his eyes with a big goofy smile and backs up, content to pitch to the side and lay next to Nico instead, kissing attempt abandoned. Laying side by side, giggling, Nico almost forgets what’s ahead of them. 

Until Will speaks up again.

“I also came in here to ask what the plan was…” Will admits, rolling over to look at the profile of Nico’s face. “I know you can’t tell me everything, but I figured if there was a place away from prying eyes, your dad’s cabin might be the best we have.” 

It’s an interesting point. Hades doesn’t like the other gods being in his business, and he definitely doesn’t like Zeus, so there’s slim to no chance he’d be letting Zeus eavesdrop on them here. And Hades, unlike any of the other gods with kids at camp, actually gives Nico his privacy. 

“I don’t really have… a plan, ” Nico squints at Will’s face, blurry with how close it is to Nico’s own. 

“But… you told Chiron you knew where to start.”

“I do!”

“Nico!” Will laughs, exasperated. “So? Where are we starting?”

“If I tell you, you’re going to be mad.” Nico looks back up at the ceiling. Or, rather, the underneath of the bottom bunk. He was only gone a week and he already spoiled himself with regular beds. 

“When have I ever been mad at you,” Will scoffs. He’s right, of course. Will is more like one of those parents who isn’t mad , just disappointed. 

“I, uh, I was thinking we could… shadow travel down to the Underworld, this time? That way my dad doesn’t know we’re there. Our last attempt didn’t exactly keep our activities very under wraps .” Nico holds his breath, watches Will’s expression, waits for the incoming argument… but it never happens. 

Will nods, considering. 

“Okay, but if you’re going to shadow travel us, you need lots of sleep and you have to promise me you’ll eat all of your meals before and after,” Will says, eyes intense. 

Nico nods immediately. If Will isn’t going to put up a fight about Nico using his powers, Nico isn’t going to put up a fight about the terms and conditions. He never reads those anyways. 

A horn sounds in the distance, signaling the turn of the hour.

“Speaking of meals, lunch time!” Will bolts up, pulling Nico out of bed with him. “Oh, wait,” Will pauses, turning back to Nico, who he has already dragged halfway to the door by the wrist. “When do you want to leave?” 

This, Nico has thought about. He needs his rest before a jump, but they (hopefully) shouldn’t be doing any actual fighting upon arrival, so he doesn’t need to be at full capacity. And being on home turf means his powers won’t be nearly as draining if he does have to use them in a fight.

“I was thinking tonight…?” Again, Nico waits for backlash that never comes. When Will doesn’t immediately protest, he continues. “I can nap between lunch and dinner, so I’ll be well rested and get both meals,” Nico says, putting on the cheesiest smile he can manage, hoping it’ll convince Will even if his words don’t. 

“I appreciate you accommodating my requests,” Will laughs, a bright twinkle in his eyes.

“I’m letting it slide this time, but next time you’ll have to fill out the proper paperwork. And it takes two to three business days to process requests, okay?” Nico jokes, hovering at his boyfriend’s side. It gets a big laugh out of Will, white teeth showing and head thrown back. 

“Not more paperwork! Please, I’m already drowning in it from the infirmary! Isn’t there another way?” Will pleads, taking Nico’s hands in his with faux wide eyes. They both devolve into giggles, leaning on one another for support. When the laughter pitters out, Will pulls back, a still happy but determined look on his face.

“I’ll grab supplies while you nap. You can help me make a list during lunch.” Will shifts from foot to foot, the excitement palpable between them. They’re doing this. 

Nico can’t believe they’re doing this.

“It’s a deal. And bring your sword this time, Solace.” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“Ready?” Nico asks as soon as he opens the door, cracking it just enough so that the dark figure outside can slip through. It’s past curfew, and even though the cleaning harpies are far less active during the Winter session, that doesn’t mean they’re not a threat. Nico waits until the door is firmly closed again to command the Greek fire torches lining the cabin back to life. 

Will is dressed head to toe in black. Even his copious amounts of blond curls are pulled back into a short, unruly ponytail. Thankfully, unlike the last official stealth mission Nico witnessed Will on, there’s no unnecessary black paint under his eyes. He did, however, have to borrow a pair of Nico’s pants since he didn’t have a black pair of his own— exchanged in secret over dinner. He looks good in them. They’re not quite the right fit, a little too tight and a little too short, but they hug his thighs nicely and the fact that they’re cargo pants makes them feel right on Will. Nico has to tear his eyes off of the shadows that dance across the folds of them to look back at Will’s face. 

“I hate this part,” Will whines, checking the straps on his backpack. That’s when Nico spots the leather scabbard at Will’s side, the golden handle of his Roman gladius peeking out of the top. Seeing Will dressed in all black, hair pulled back, serious look on his face, and sword at his side — Nico’s heart jumps into his throat. He’s not sure if he loves it or hates it. It feels wrong . Will should be sitting in a soft chair in the infirmary, singing soothing hymns and wiping the blood from wounds. Not stabbing things. That’s Nico’s job. 

But, on the other hand, it’s kind of… it’s kind of hot. Which is ridiculous, because every teenager Nico knows wields a weapon of some kind. And owns practical clothes for quests. You’d think it would lose its novelty. Apparently not, or maybe Nico spent too much of his childhood ogling over anyone with a hero complex, but the sight of Will walking around with Jason’s sword strapped casually to his hip and his hair up…

“Let’s get this over with,” Will sighs, completely oblivious to the war occuring in Nico’s mind. He holds out a freckled hand and Nico shakes himself out of his stupor to grab it. They haven’t even started to shadow travel yet and Will is already green in the face. 

Wait… Nico is forgetting something. 

He was so busy staring at Will he almost forgot his own stuff. He tugs Will over to the bed where he set his backpack— filled with ambrosia and snacks and a single change of clothes. Nico already has his sword, like he always does, and it looks like Will has everything they planned on him grabbing…

Alright, they’re doing this. It’s time. No going back now. 

Nico is bringing Jason back. 

He takes both of Will’s hands in his own. 

“Wait. Here—” Nico moves in closer, grabbing Will’s forearms and half hugging him, half bracing against him. Nico didn’t account for the fact that they’d be pressed head to toe like this. “Maybe this will keep you from getting so twisted around and nauseous?” Nico says, looking down with red tinted cheeks, pretending to suddenly be very interested in his new black leather boots. Breaking in shoes during a quest is probably a bad idea, but Nico wanted to look his best for Elysium, you know?

Will’s face lights up, eyes gooey. “You do love me,” he jokes, but his words curl sugary sweet at the edges. 

“Oh, stuff it.” Nico rolls his eyes, looking away. Like always, he can’t help the matching smile that threatens his sour expression. Will is so bad for Nico’s brooding image. How is he supposed to be cool and intimidating with the literal sun following him around cracking jokes? 

“I mean it! I know you try to sell the whole prince of darkness thing, but you’re secretly such a softy. And you love me!” Will sing-songs, leaning into Nico’s space. He pulls Nico fully into a hug, easily resting his cheek on Nico’s head.

“You’re going to lose hug privileges,” Nico warns, heat threatening to spread down his collarbone. If he was Leo, the top of his head would have absolutely burst into flames by now. He’s glad he’s not Leo though, because then he would have fried Will on his hands.

“No! Not my hug privileges! I’ll never speak again.” Will squeezes Nico tighter and buries his face in Nico’s hair. The laugh he lets loose sparks something warm in Nico’s chest. Nico goes to lean into the hug, and…

…Wait a second. Something is off. Nico’s forehead doesn’t slot right into place like it usually does. And Will’s chin has never touched the top of his head so easily.

“Did Juno’s blessing make you taller? ” Nico pulls back to squint angrily up at Will, dislodging him from his comfortable spot. 

“I think so…” Will laughs.

“This is the worst day of my life.”

“Oh, please—” It’s Will’s turn to roll his eyes. Nico would very much like to wipe Will’s shit-eating grin off of his face, so he makes sure Will is extra snug in his arms and starts to call on the shadows around him, dark eyes still staring up at Will. It doesn’t take Will long to catch on to what’s happening. The pupils of his blue eyes dialate.

“Wait, Nico, let’s talk about this—”

“Three, two—” 

“No! Nico!”

“One!” 

The shadows warp and dampen, growing cold as Nico bends them into place. He holds Will tight, and tips them backwards. 

It’s more of a freefall than a walk. Stepping through the shadows is easy in the upper world, but going from land to the Underworld is a whole different ball game. Takes longer, too. They descend and descend and descend. The darkness whips icy wind around them, and Will’s fingertips dig into Nico’s side through his shirt. That’s going to bruise. 

Nico feels their destination approaching, steers them towards it as best as he can. He tries to aim them away from Hades’ palace, but not so far that it’s more than a small hike to Elysium. And that’s when he sees his opening— The Judgment Pavilion. It looms dangerous and quiet in the mirky distance, the shadows cast by the pavilion’s overhang design the perfect exit. 

Nico forces them into their connecting shadow, but he miscalculates slightly, and they drop like a sack of potatoes the ten short feet to the ground. Will crashes against Nico, landing on top and still holding onto Nico for dear life.

“Ow,” Will groans. 

“Ow?! You’re the one who landed on me, ” Nico hisses, pushing his boyfriend off of him. 

“I don’t think the hugging helped… I don’t feel so good—” Will scrambles around the corner and does, in fact, not feel so good. Nico tries to ignore the retching sounds as he closes his eyes and catches his breath against the cold, hard, rocky ground of his father’s realm. Maybe he’ll take a little nap right here…

“Back so soon?” A flowery, warm voice calls out to Nico’s left. Nico’s eyes fly open, and the sound of slow approaching footsteps echoes out until their visitor hovers upside down in Nico’s view. 

Persephone.  

This is bad. This is very bad. What is she doing here? Her pencil thin eyebrows and lucious amounts of waving brown hair tower high over Nico. Looking up at her is no easy feat with her dress of tumbling deep red roses and shifting gemstones taking up Nico’s entire field of vision. 

“Persephone!” Will squeaks, sounding far too excited. Nico goes to shoot him a glare but catches Will wiping something Nico refuses to acknowledge from the corner of his mouth. Gross. Note to self: do not kiss Will until they’ve had a chance to wash his mouth out.  

“What sort of secret mission are we on this time?” Persephone asks, amused. Mild exhaustion be damned, Nico scrambles to his feet. 

“Nothing!” He says, far too loud to be convincing. “I just… missed the Underworld. And… Will wanted to come with me. Right, Will?” Nico fakes a smile, sharp eyes boring into Will. 

“Uh… right! Yeah! We were, um, going on a walk.” Good job, William. Very convincing. Not! Will is practically shaking in his boots. As a son of the god of truth, lying, even little white lies, is not his strong suit. 

“And he’s never met Cerberus, so…” Nico jerks his thumb to the right (in the opposite direction of Cerberus) like they’re going to get going, but nobody moves an inch. 

Persephone definitely sees right through it if the way she crosses delicate, pale arms over her chest is any indication. 

“Of course… Well, then, I suppose you have the time to join your father and I for dinner? We were just about to start.” Persephone's smirk curdles into something dangerous, and the memory of being turned into a dandelion flashes fresh in Nico’s mind. Better not get on her bad side. 

But they don’t have the time for this. They need to get Jason and go.

“Um… we already ate, so…” Nico looks at Will for help, but he’s too busy staring at Persephone with wonder. Oh my gods. This again. Nico’s boyfriend is a bisexual disaster.

“That’s not an issue. You don’t usually eat when we have family dinner anyways. Plus, I do believe someone owes me for some stolen goods during your last mission,” Persephone says, holding her hands out to the two boys. Nico’s heart drops into his stomach, but the look Persephone gives Will is playful. Did Will know? Why are they looking at each other like that? “Come on, then. To the dining room we go.” 

Speaking of Hades’ palace… What was she doing all the way out here by the Judgement Pavilion? It’s like she was waiting for them…

Will doesn’t hesitate to take her hand. And Nico loathes the idea of going this alone, so he takes the other. He’s sure to grab Will’s free hand, to make sure they aren’t separated, and Nico suddenly feels like they should be skipping in a circle and singing kumbaya. 

“Hold on tight.” Persephone winks, and with a flash of light they appear in Hades’ palace.

“That was so much better than shadow traveling!” Will sighs with relief.

The dining hall is bustling with life. Or, rather, un life. Undead servants flutter to and fro carrying platters and goblets and hor'dourves. The room is towering and massive, the walls made of shining obsidian and the floor a polished black marble. The dining table in the center is fit for a small army. Gorgeous, overflowing bouquets of every color line the middle of the ornate mahogany table, freshly picked from Persephone’s garden. Over three dozen chairs are set along the table’s edges. Ironic, given that it only sees a maximum of three people— Hades, Persephone, and sometimes Nico. The chair at the head of the table is for his father: carved bones and a high back meant to mimic his throne one room over. 

A young woman with spectral flowers in her braided silky hair floats by, offering a platter full of delicious looking expensive little meats, cheeses, and fruits on toothpicks made of fingerbones. Will licks his lips and reaches for the plate but Nico smacks his hand away. 

“Focus,” Nico hisses. Will’s eyes go wide. 

“Right, sorry—”

“Nico? Is that you?” A voice as deep as the far reaches of the Underworld booms. A looming, shadowy figure steps into the palace’s dining room. Nico’s father, Hades himself. Eight feet tall even at his most mortal looking with back-length black hair. His skin is a shade of white Nico didn’t reach even at his palest and weakest, the black of his eyes deeper and scarier than Nico’s could ever be. His beard and sharp cheekbones are the same, though his face is warmer with Nico around— permanent scowl more of a light furrow. His usual cloak shimmers with tormented souls. 

Hades is a terrifying visage— to anyone who doesn’t know him. Nico often forgets that his father is perhaps one of the scariest Olympians to encounter without warning. To Nico, and any of his demigod friends who have interacted with his father, Hades is the most benevolent of the Olympians. He spends most of his time around dead mortals— their passions and their regrets. Unlike any of the other Olympians, except maybe now Apollo, Hades is capable of understanding the human condition.

Will shrivels backwards, tucking himself behind Nico as Hades glides closer. 

“Father,” Nico says, tilting his head in greeting. His father nods back before his sunken eyes catch on the bright shaking figure using Nico as a shield. 

“And you must be Apollo’s son, Will.” Hades sounds excited (or as excited as the god of the dead can be) before he reels himself back into his uninterested expression. “I’ve heard much about you.” Play it cool, Nico. Play it totally normal and cool. Hades is playing it cool. Nico can play it cool, too.

“Ah, yes, um…” Nico says, eloquent as ever. It’s unfair that Will is already hiding behind him because Nico would like to cower behind Will right about now. Both his father and step-mother raise an eyebrow. 

Nico opens his mouth to do introductions, and the skeletal butterflies return with a vengeance. The words my boyfriend, my boyfriend, my boyfriend, stutter like a skipping record in his head. 

It takes him four tries of making the wrong sounds to finally say it.

“Hades, Persephone, this is my boyfriend , Will.” The butterflies erupt into tiny fireworks at being able to introduce Will that way to his family. Which now entirely consists of Hades, but it’s better than nothing. One bonus of your father being a Greek god is that you don’t have to worry about them not accepting you being gay, Nico supposes. Strange that Nico didn’t realize that until after Apollo came to camp as a mortal and started explaining his exploits with Kayla’s father in great detail over dinner— but Nico was a little caught up in his cycle of self-loathing to think about coming out to Hades before that. It wasn’t at the top of his list of priorities.

Nico lets himself imagine his mom to Hades’ left, Bianca to his right, both giggling at Nico’s fumbling words and embarrassment. He wonders if his mother would approve. If Will and Bianca would get along.

“I was wondering when Nico was finally going to let me meet you.” Hades keeps his attention on Will, a smile etching across his stark face. It might not look like it from the outside, but Nico knows from experience that it’s a good smile— a humorous one. The one Hades gives Nico when he’s desperately trying to get an inside joke across, but hasn’t made a joke in over a millenia. He’s doing his best.

Will is still hiding behind Nico, but Hades pays that no mind. Like Nico, Hades is used to people reacting poorly to his presence. He sticks a large, angled hand out to shake Will’s, who very nervously obliges— his mortal hand dwarfed by Hades’. 

“It’s an honor, Lord Hades,” Will squeaks, attempting to stare at every evil soul in Hades’ cloak instead of looking the god in the eyes. 

Hades lets out a deep chuckle, and Will honest to gods blushes, a soft glow starting around him. Okay, calling his step-mom hot was one thing, but this?! Nico not-so-secretly shoulder checks his boyfriend. Will offers him an embarrassed and apologetic smile, bringing a hand up to rub at his neck— caught red-handed. 

Nico is starting to think Will has a type. A very terrible, specific type.

“So long as you’re nothing like your egotistical father, as Persephone tells me you are not, we’ll get along fine.” Hades' smile softens and he straightens back up to his full height. “The last time Nico brought me a visitor, it was Percy Jackson. So we are already off to a good start that you are not him. ”

“Dad!” It’s Nico’s turn to go bright red. The laughs that Will and Persephone let out are bright and airy— sunlight peeking through a storm, rain in the desert, warm blankets in winter. It’s a sound so out of place in the Underworld that all of the undead servants stop what they’re doing and listen. 

“Don’t be Apollo and don’t be Percy… I can do that,” Will says, gaining confidence and stepping out from behind Nico. He slides up next to him instead, shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm, and tucks his hand into Nico’s. 

“Something is different, though. You look more confident, more capable,” Persephone hums, sizing Will up. Her dark eyes rake across Will’s form, now out in the open. “I sense that you have a new patron.”

Nico looks between Will and Persephone. He didn’t realize that was something other gods could detect. Can they, like, smell one another’s claims or something? That would be so weird…

“It’s the sword,” Will says, sweat building on his palm against Nico’s hand. His smile is forced as he gestures to Jason’s sword at his side. “I guess with Jason gone, I’m Juno’s new champion now!” He says with as much faux excitement as he can muster. They both flinch at the mention of Jason, remembering what they're here to do. 

It doesn’t convince Hades or Persephone. Hades’ eyebrows raise quickly and fall just as fast, masking his surprise. He does, however, look to Nico with concern on his features. His father knows how good of a friend Jason was to Nico. The look on Hades’ face says he half expects Nico to crumple into tears at the mere mention of him. Persephone doesn’t react at all except for a small sigh. 

“I do hope that was a choice Will made?” Hades asks, a dark look on his face. He’s still looking at Nico. They both know Jason was never given a choice, something Nico has lamented to his father in long, unending rants when he felt like he couldn’t talk Will’s ear off about it any longer after Jason’s death. Hades shifts the stare to Will when Nico breaks eye contact, sad eyes cast down to the ground.

“Ehh…” Will looks away, also crumbling under the weight of Hades’ stare. He’s hit his quota of lying for the day. 

“Well, I think that’s enough introductions! The food is going to get cold!” Persephone saves the day, interrupting to usher them all forward towards the dining table. It’s a trick, because the food doesn’t get cold. It’s magic. Everyone chooses to believe her anyway for the sake of avoiding awkward conversation.

Food is whisked onto the table in a flurry of ghosts. Plates and silverware are set in front of each chair as if a feast is to occur.

Once, and only once, Nico invited all the undead servants in the palace to eat breakfast with him just to see if he could— filled the table of thirty six with standing room overflow. It was amazing. They sat and talked and laughed and ate and Nico watched as the spirits each came alive in their own way, told one another about their lives and their loved-ones. He was caught by Hades, of course, and implored never to do it again… but looking out at the empty table, Nico is thinking he should really ignore that and do it again. 

As soon as they’re in their seats, Nico to Hades’ left and Will by his side, Nico realizes he’s been bamboozled. He was so distracted by introducing his father to his boyfriend that he forgot he was supposed to be protesting eating dinner. They have things to do! They don’t have time for family dinner! Nico looks around frantically for an out.

Hades and Persephone begin to serve themselves. Appetizing salads with greens from Persephone’s garden and foreign (potentially monster) cuts of meat that look cooked to perfection. Again, Will goes to serve himself, and this time Nico can’t stop him without it looking suspicious. 

“Nothing has pomegranates in it, right?” Nico side eyes Persephone as he asks, keeping his head turned towards Will in case his boyfriend puts something on his plate he shouldn’t eat. 

“Of course not, dear,” Persephone says around a mouth full of salad. 

Great. With that solved, Nico can let Will eat in peace while Nico comes up with a gameplan. He either needs to distract the two gods so they can slip away unnoticed, or he needs to come up with a good enough excuse to leave. 

They already tried excuses with Persephone, and that got them nowhere, so distraction it is. 

Nico takes a deep breath, trying to think of something to say, but Hades beats him to it. 

“So, I hear you run the infirmary at Camp Half-Blood,” Hades says, watching Will as he serves himself a small portion of grilled meat.

“I do…” Will looks nervously between Nico and Hades. Nico can read the “Where is this going?” in his expression. “I have since I was twelve. Titan War, and all that…” Will looks down at his plate, like he’s unsure how much he’s allowed to say. 

“Healing is difficult work,” Hades nods, as awkward as always. Hopefully Will sees where Nico gets his social skills from, now. 

“I like it, though. It’s nice to be able to solve problems in a way that isn’t…” Will pauses, trying to think of the word he wants to use. 

Violence? War? Pain? Death? All things Nico is all too familiar with receiving and giving out.

“Fighting?” Persephone supplies.

“Yeah.” Will smiles. “I’ve actually been thinking about going to school for it.” Will tacks on, quieter as the sentence goes on like he’s testing out the waters. That’s three adults they’ve told now. It gets more and more real every time.

Nico watches as Will puts a bite of food in his mouth and melts at the taste. They just ate… but Nico’s stomach rumbles. He did shadow travel, and he has yet to think of a way out of dinner… maybe he should cave and eat something. He always did like the food here. With all of the best cooks to ever die in one place, it would be weird if the food wasn’t delicious.

Nico’s stomach grumbles again. 

Fine. Nico grabs a random platter and starts serving himself what looks like a medley of Underworld vegetables. Better not to do the second half of their mission on an empty stomach, Nico supposes. He won't be of any use if he passes out while trying to get Jason. 

Nico lets himself relax into his chair. Dinner wont take more than an hour, anyways. What could possibly happen in an hour that would change Nico’s ability to get into Elysium?

“It’s so nice that you all have access to New Rome University, now,” Persephone is saying as Nico tunes back into the conversation. “I’m sure you’ll do great with whatever you decide to do, Will.” Her tone is unexpectedly sweet and encouraging. Nico is really starting to think he missed something between the two of them.

“Thanks.” Will blushes. Nico figures it will end there, but Will turns to him with an expectant look in his eyes.

“What?” Nico asks around his mouthful of vegetables. 

“Did you want to…” Will jerks his head towards Hades. Nico’s brain struggles to compute for a few seconds. 

“Oh! Uh…” Nico forces himself to swallow before he’s done chewing and chokes a little bit. They all watch, cringing, as Nico coughs into his hand until Will reaches out and dislodges the stray cave carrot with magic. “Sorry, um.” Nico composes himself. “I was also thinking of going back to school…?” Nico’s voice climbs in pitch with every word, looking right at his father.

Hades blinks back at him, shocked. Seconds tick by where they stare at each other, until Hades’ face breaks out into a genuine smile. It’s crooked, and more than a little sad, but it’s the realest smile Nico has ever seen from him.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, Nico. I have been hoping you would find something you liked other than your work as an ambassador for me. Not that I do not appreciate your assistance, but you know my only wish is for you to be happy. And I do not think being my ambassador provides a lot of… joy,” Hades chuckles, deep in his chest. His dark eyes glow with warmth. Nico doesn’t think he’s ever seen his father so happy. Except for maybe in his memories of Hades watching him and Bianca run around the house, or sitting in his lap over Buon Natale. “Do let me know if there is anything I could do to assist either of you.” 

Nico’s eyes go misty, and he can’t muster more than “Thanks, dad,” without letting the tears free. 

Will’s jaw drops, but he quickly snaps it shut. “Thank you, sir,” he says, voice cracking. 

“Oh, you’ll have to pick what to study! How fun! I have always wanted to experience getting a degree in botany from a mortal’s perspective,” Persephone sighs dreamily. 

“Nico has a few years to decide, thankfully,” Will laughs, sounding emotional. Nico is too busy still looking at his father and fighting his own emotions to check on him. 

Persephone and Will make small talk while Nico and Hades dance around stealing glances at one another. Nico pretends to be very busy eating his serving of aromatic mystery meat.

“Anything new down here? Do things even change?” Will asks. 

“Not particularly,” Persephone answers, unsurprisingly. Hades is occupied by also pretending to be very busy eating his dinner. “It’s as congested down here as always, my garden is still recovering from my absence over Spring, and Daedelus is performing some emergency maintenance on the shield around Elysium.” Persephone really emphasizes the last sentence— stops scooping food onto her plate to look between the two boys until it clicks in Nico’s head. He whips around to look at her, but she’s back to eating like nothing happened. Nico blinks rapidly. He didn’t imagine what she just said, did he? 

Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case, because when he looks over to Will, his boyfriend is already giving him the same bewildered look.

“Emergency maintenance?” Nico asks, trying not to seem too intrigued. It’s hard, though, when he’s bouncing in his seat, any mention of Elysium or Jason enough to send his heart rate running— conversation with Hades totally forgotten

“Persephone caught a flaw in the shield on her morning walk,” Hades chimes in, also ready to move on. “The magic is usually self-sustaining and I have not had any problems with it until now, but I used to think the same thing of Tartarus. And that was clearly the wrong idea.” Hades’ dark eyebrows pull together, lip twitching up in distaste. 

“Oh! I know! Perhaps you two could go check on his progress for me? Since you were going to go on a little walk anyway.” Okay, Persephone is definitely up to something, because the smile on her face is far too wide and her eyes are twinkling in a way Nico only sees right before she’s about to turn an unruly house guest into a house plant.

No way she’s dropping that right in Nico’s lap. What does she know? He has half a mind to believe they’re being set up…

But Nico doesn’t have any other options, does he? They came here with no plan on how to get into Elysium, and now they’re stuck having dinner with his family. If Nico doesn’t take this out, he might not get another chance. 

“We could do that, yeah,” Nico says, controlling his enthusiasm and glancing at Will. Will quickly nods.

“Oh, lovely!” Persephone claps, and the ghostly servants dart in to whisk Will and Nico’s still half-full plates away. Nico mourns the loss of the rest of his second dinner. He should’ve started eating sooner. “Thank you so very much, boys. You’ll find him on the North side. Enjoy your walk!” She ushers them away, and Hades looks as shocked at their sudden departure as Nico feels.  

Nico’s brain doesn’t get a chance to catch up until they’re outside and the palace doors slam shut behind them. 

“What… just happened?” Nico asks.

“I think your step mom asked us to dinner to set us up to go to Elysium? She has to know, right?” Will says, staring at the door. Nico nods, dazed.

“Well… To Elysium we go?” 

“On business for Persephone, and definitely nothing else,” Will says with a laugh. 

“Definitely.” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Elysium is a decent walk from the palace, which Will fills with humming his favorite songs and starting up useless conversations. Bone twigs and lifeless dirt crunch under their feet as they walk along hand in hand. The light is low and a gentle wind hums across the land, carrying the smell of Persephone’s garden to them. It’s almost… romantic. A very different set of emotions than Nico is used to feeling on his hikes through the endless trails of the Underworld.

There’s a reason Nico knows the way to Elysium. 

There was nothing better to do when he was an angsty homeless tween than explore every nook and cranny of the Underworld. He used to walk its perimeter and wonder if Bianca was in there, if his mother was in there. Used to wonder if he would make it in there to join them if he didn’t fight the next monster that came for him with all of his strength. Would the specters who judge his soul know he didn’t give it his all? 

Nico likes to think his father wouldn’t let him end up in the Fields of Punishment or Asphodel, but he wasn’t so sure at the time. 

Nico hasn’t been back since. Ironic, how such a happy place can hold such terrible memories. 

It’s definitely different having Will here, just like Tartarus was. He’s a bright point in the darkness, grounding and firm when Nico feels like he wants to float away into the shadows. The sound of his warm voice fills the echoing quiet. 

Nico always wonders how they haven’t run out of things to talk about even though they spend every day together.

“Your family would make a killer Addams family cosplay,” Will says out of the blue, swinging their hands back and forth. 

“Who’s that?” 

“Y’know, like the show you refuse to watch because Kayla kept calling you Wednesday Addams,” Will giggles. “I swear you’d like it. We can watch it without her! Plus, Persephone and Hades totally give me Morticia and Gomez vibes.” 

“This means nothing to me. I’m also afraid to ask any more questions since the last time we talked about this, you told me my step-mom was hot,” Nico says, going for annoyed, but too busy enjoying Will’s company to really sell it. 

Will sighs, overdramatic. “Well, if you’d just watch the show—“ 

Nico puts his hand out in front of Will’s chest, bringing him to a halt. There it is, off in the distance. The border into Elysium. Glowing blue and shimmering, an oversized dome hundreds of feet tall made of sparkles and swirling colors. Nico points to it, and then puts his finger up to his lips. 

The plan: find where Daedalus is, avoid talking to him, find the crack in the bubble themselves, and sneak in. 

Against all odds, the plan works . 

They find Daedalus with ease. His spirit flutters anxiously to-and-fro on the North side, a spot obscured from the palace. Just like Persephone promised. He’s running spectral hands across the surface, muttering to himself. 

The issue is immediately obvious. Right in front of Daedalus is a nasty looking gash, deep red and festering with pulsing magic — like a wound. 

Being stealthy is difficult when there are mostly tumbleweeds and decaying trees in sight, but they manage to find a jagged rock to hide behind. 

“We need to get him away from it,” Nico whispers to Will.

”Why does it look like that?” Will whispers back, ignoring Nico’s statement and staring at the gash in the bubble with an equal mixture of horror and curiosity. 

“Not really important right now, Will.” Nico grabs the other boy’s face, turning it towards him. “Have any ideas?” 

“Um… can’t you just summon some skeletons to distract him?” Will speaks around his squished cheeks.

“Are you encouraging me to use my powers right now?” Nico can’t help but laugh. Oh, how the tables have turned. “What happened to not using more than one of my powers in a day?” 

“As your doctor, I have decided your condition has greatly improved, as well as your pension for self-preservation. You also voluntarily had an extra meal today. And so I am allowing you more uses per day if you’re not too tired.” Will says, mime-ing as if he were holding his infirmary clipboard and favorite pen, face still pinched in Nico’s hand. He uses his overly professional voice, which never fails to make Nico giggle. 

“So generous of you, doctor,” Nico laughs, struggling to keep his voice down so Daedalus doesn’t hear them. He lets go of Will’s face and blows him a raspberry. 

“You’re welcome.” Will nods, very serious. 

Before he can take his permission back, Nico reaches into the ground for a stray skeleton. Oddly enough, they can be hard to come by in the Underworld, since things usually die above ground and only their spirits make it down here. However, a few skeletons manifest in the Underworld anyways by some ancient magic that draws them here. Nico can only hope there’s one within raising distance. 

The ground beneath them so close to Elysium contains a surprising amount of stray bones, animal and monster and human alike. Nico passes up on the dozens of complete mice and crow skeletons right below the surface and digs deeper with his mind. There has to be at least one full human skeleton… right? There’s a harpy, a dog, a small warped thing Nico can’t identify, and then—

Got one.

Nico opens his eyes to share the good news to find Will’s face very close to his own, eyes shining with amusement and a tiny, poorly contained smile on his face. 

“What?” Nico asks, a harsh whisper.

“Nothing. You’re cute when you concentrate,” Will says, adoration flooding his voice. Nico’s face flushes red. 

“No I am not.” 

“Yes you are!” 

They have a silent stare off, Nico’s attempt at anger slowly losing steam to Will’s big smile. 

“Whatever,” Nico huffs, and Will does a little happy wiggle at his win. “I was going to tell you I found a skeleton we can use, if you’d like to get back on track.” 

“Summon away, oh Ghost King!” 

Nico shakes his head at his ridiculous boyfriend, but closes his eyes again. Pulling the skeleton out of the ground is easy enough, dirt shifting beneath his fingertips to rise next to Nico. The bones assemble themselves, the skeleton coming to life crouched with them. 

“Tell Daedalus you were sent by Hades, and that he… uh…” Nico struggles to think of a convincing message halfway through his instructions.

“That he’s due for his government mandated thirty minute lunch break,” Will jumps in with a laugh.

“You really aren’t taking this seriously,” Nico glares at Will. He aims for funny, but the real life stress of being so close to getting Jason puts a little too much fire behind the look. His parentage shines through the heat of his glare.

Will shrinks back. “Sorry…”

“No, I— I didn’t mean to—” Nico stumbles through a quick apology, desperate to get his message across. They have a lot on their plates right now and Nico is feeling the gravity of what they’re about to do more and more. The longer they squat here by Elysium the more nervous he’s getting. 

“It’s okay,” Will breathes out. He reaches a hand out and puts it on Nico’s shoulder, a comfort to still Nico’s pounding heart. 

Nico forces out a deep sigh and turns back to the skeleton.

“… and tell him that he’s due for his government mandated thirty minute lunch break,” Nico commands. He gives Will a little smile that he hopes communicates enough of an apology for now, and gets one in return. 

They watch as the skeleton marches over to Daedalus and delivers the message with glowing eyes and a lot of jingling bones noises. They seem to get into a back and forth argument about it before Daedalus lets out an exasperated sigh and floats away. 

That was… easy.

As soon as he’s out of sight, Nico and Will hurry up to the dome. 

“Thank you for your service.” Nico waves his hand, dismissing the skeleton. It collapses into a heap of bones at his feet.

“What happened to it?” Nico turns to find Will staring in wonder at the gash, careful not to touch it. 

“I’m not sure… I didn’t know it could even get damaged like this,” Nico responds. Up close, the split oozes a deep red and purple. Little boils cluster along the edges, periodically popping and reforming. They remind Nico of pomegranate seeds. Red at the center and surrounded by clear bubbles of magic.

Nico thinks of Persephone, who clearly knew Nico and Will were headed to Elysium, and gave them a reason to be there without Hades’ suspicion. 

Did she do this?

Nico raises a hand to touch it, but as soon as he gets close, he can feel his skin start to vibrate. Like his very molecules are attempting to rip apart. It takes effort to pull his hand back and he hasn’t even touched it yet. 

“How are we going to find him once we’re in there?” Will asks. “And how are we going to get out?”

“Would you be upset if I said I have no idea?” Nico runs uneasy fingers through his hair, catching in the many tangles. Will shrugs and takes Nico’s free hand. 

“Only one way to find out!” A sunny smile crosses his face, and Nico can’t tell if it’s forced or not. He hopes not. 

“In we go, I guess. Don’t let go of my hand,” Nico says, still staring down the gash. He prays that touching it will let them inside, and not send them flying into a different dimension. 

Like Will said, there’s only one way to find out.  

Nico puts his hand up to the break in the bubble, and this time, he doesn’t try to pull back.

Every atom in his body lights up, sending signals of too hot too cold too hot too cold— He feels his physical form burst into a million pieces. Not like it does when he shadow travels. It isn’t a slow fade, it’s immediate and horrifying and it simultaneously feels like a millenia and less than a second when he comes out on the other side. 

Nico collapses to his knees. It’s so bright. So bright that he can’t see, can’t think. Nico has to squeeze his eyes shut while he catches his breath, clawing at his arms to settle the pinpricks sharp across his skin. 

And that’s when he realizes. He’s not holding Will’s hand.

Chapter Text

Nico forces his eyes open.

Too bright. The light here, wherever he is, is almost pure white. He squeezes his eyes shut again. 

“Will?” Nico calls out, hoping that even if neither of them can see, Will can at least hear. There’s no response. He spreads his arms out, wondering if maybe Will is just nearby, but he feels nothing. Oh, gods.

Nico can’t remember where he is, or what he’s supposed to be doing, but he knows one thing: Will is supposed to be with him.

Panic tries to rise in Nico’s throat, but something holds it down. Something unnatural.  

Any other time and that realization would be the end of Nico’s ability to function on his own. Nico can feel it boiling there, beneath the surface of his skin, but it doesn’t break free. It doesn’t flood his veins or curl his fingers. It’s too easy to steady his breathing, calm his heart at the idea of Will being missing. 

By some miracle, he holds himself together. 

Nico opens his eyes again, blinking back tears at the sheer force of the sun. He manages to get them all the way open, hand hovering over his eyes in a useless shield (Where is the light even coming from?), and he finally deciphers where he is. 

The one place he would recognize in an instant: Italy.

More specifically, Venice. Nico is on a gondola, floating down a canal reflecting the glaring sunlight directly into his eyes. The gorgeous, sun-bleached brick buildings that Nico loved to gawk at when he was a little kid tower over him. The water, unlike the Venice Nico remembers (and has visited in recent years), is crystal clear to a cobblestone bottom. Everything looks like an overexposed photo with the contrast boosted all the way up. And despite the harsh sun, the temperature outside is perfect and the breeze is pushing him gently down the stream. 

Except… there shouldn’t be a stream. And the water shouldn’t be clear. And it shouldn’t smell nearly this heavenly, the wafting scent of fresh bread and Summer fruit heavy in the air. There are no other people in sight despite how busy these areas usually are with sweaty, swarming tourists.

This isn’t Venice, it’s…

Nico’s head throbs. 

What was he doing before this? Why is he in Italy? Did he shadow travel here? If he shadow traveled, he needs to get back to where he was to find Will now.  

Except, that doesn’t feel quite right. Nico knows in his gut that isn’t what happened. 

He tries desperately to recall what he and Will were doing before this. Head rioting against him, Nico has to bury his face between his knees, boat rocking, and cradle himself there to combat the pain enough to think. 

They were at camp. Nico was unpacking, and then he was… repacking? For a trip. To Italy? No… not a trip. Something else.

Something else…

A quest? Nico sucks in a fast breath. A quest! That feels right. Good, he’s getting somewhere… 

They were on a quest to get to… 

Nothing comes to mind. The pain spreads to the front of his brow. Nico backs up a little bit and tries again. 

After packing for their quest, he and Will did shadow travel somewhere. The vague memory of his father and step-mother flutter at the edges of his consciousness. The Underworld! Okay… and from there, they went to…

They went to…

Something about Will and Daedelus and Jason—

Elysium.

He made it! 

Nico goes to stand up out of excitement but the gondola wobbles dangerously and he sits right back down. 

Okay, so he made it to Elysium. Or, at least, he assumes so even though there are no spirits in sight. And he’s lost Will in the process. 

Nico hopes Will is okay. 

Best case scenario, he couldn’t get through the barrier with Nico and he’s still out there, eagerly waiting for Nico's return. Worst case scenario… Nico doesn’t want to think about the worst case scenario. 

Priority number one is to find Jason. And the only bit of information Nico has to go off of is the dream he had the night after he summoned him— Jason standing, shocked, outside of a tiny gelato shop. The busy crowd of Elysium moving around him.

He needs to find where the spirits are and start asking around. Which means getting out of this canal.

Nico clambers to the side of the gondola, doing his best to keep it from tipping. There are no other boats in sight, only his, and there’s no good way to get up the tall stone walls separating the stream from the city. He’s not sure how his powers would work here, so he doesn’t want to try shadow traveling unless he absolutely has to.

Nico looks around, really hoping there’s a solution that doesn’t involve him getting in the water. He has no idea what river in the Underworld is feeding this stream. It could be entirely an illusion and he won’t get wet at all, or it could be just enough of an illusion that he won’t know he’s taking a dip in the River Styx or the River Lethe until it’s too late. Not ideal circumstances for a swim. Nico would like to keep his lifetime dips in the Lethe to one, and he’s already hit that quota, so he won’t be tempting fate today.

The sound of laughter hits Nico’s ears and he whips his head towards it. Up ahead, there’s a cluster of children standing on a bridge Nico is about to pass under. They’re spirits, of course, and Nico’s heart clenches at just how young they are. A group of four leaning over the bridge and pointing at him. They have matching ginger curls and bright freckles, wearing nightgowns and no shoes. 

But they’re not important right now. Well, they are, because Nico needs to know where everybody else is , but the bridge is even more important. 

Nico’s mental math tells him he has a decent chance of getting up onto it if he jumps hard enough, which is the only way out of the canal that has presented itself so far. 

Nico grabs his sword and leans dangerously over the edge of the gondola, using the tip of his sword to push himself to the other edge of the canal. It’s a stretch, but he manages to push himself all the way to the other end, meaning the bridge will be significantly lower where he’s going to pass under. 

Nico doesn’t have much time, the bridge fast approaching. He stands on shaky legs and bends his knees, preparing to jump. The kids watch with wide eyes as he grows closer and closer. 

Nico waits, trying to time it right. He only gets one shot. If he misses, he’s going for a swim. Which could mean invincibility, having his memories wiped clean, or certain death. None of which are options Nico really likes. As romantic as watching Percy take a swim in the River Styx and come out basically a god was, Nico has other things to get done today that don’t involve reliving his weirdest homoerotic memories.

As soon as the tip of the gondola touches the bridge’s shadow, Nico jumps forward, tipping the little boat over with a loud splash and barely managing to grab hold of one of the rungs on the bridge’s safety railing. Nailed it.

The group of kids run over to where he’s holding on, gathering in a little circle as Nico swings precariously over the edge. The railing is too tall for him to climb over, so Nico swings his sword and wedges it between the cobblestones on the other side, using it as leverage to heave himself up. 

Nico collapses onto the stones with a grunt. Surprisingly, his body doesn’t register any pain from the fall. A nice change of pace from the constant pain Nico feels and has inflicted upon him. He could get used to this Elysium thing.

“Are you okay, mister?” one of the kids asks when Nico doesn’t move from laying face first on the dirty bridge. Her accent is thick, but Nico can’t place it. 

“Peachy,” Nico mutters, lifting himself from his pathetic heap on the ground. He struggles onto his feet, and gets his first good look at the group. 

At the front is the little girl Nico presumes is the one who spoke to him. She’s the oldest by a lot, but no older than Nico was when he first found out he was a demigod. Behind her stand two more girls, probably five years old with matching fish-tail braids, and a little boy who looks barely old enough to walk. Their souls radiate child-like innocence, except for the girl at the front. Her form flickers with blue waves of sorrow, but she doesn’t seem sad at all. Nico wonders if she’s able to, here. 

That’s not Nico’s problem to solve right now. Right now, he needs to find Jason, and Will, and leave. Nico worries that if he doesn’t keep reminding himself, he’ll forget. All of his memories feel like a watercolor haze in his head. 

Looking around, Nico still doesn’t see any other spirits. If he wants a lead on how to find Jason, these kids are his best bet. 

The problem is Nico has no idea how to talk to little kids. There’s a reason he’s only allowed to tend to older campers’ wounds in the infirmary. He always makes the really little ones cry. Will says it’s because Nico’s trying too hard not to come across as scary, and forces that weird Hades-kid smile onto his face that freezes the blood in people’s veins. “Just be yourself,” Will always tells him. “If you’re calm and comfortable, the kids will be too.”

Easier said than done. But there’s no better time to practice than the present.

“Uhhh… hi. I’m Nico,” he says, sticking his hand out to her. Nico tries to summon a smile, but it goes creepy-sideways like it always does when he doesn’t mean it, so he immediately drops it again. She eyeballs his boney hand, green eyes intense, but takes it in a firm shake. 

A mistake. Elysium is so disorienting that Nico forgot they were spirits.

In a flash, he’s standing in a bright green open field, an intense storm overhead. The grass is flattened with the wind. He’s holding the other three shaking siblings in his arms, desperately attempting to shield them from the rain. They’ve taken shelter under the only tree in the entire clearing, their clothes matted with water and leaves. The hair on his arms stand on end and Nico knows that feeling . He tries to tense for it, but muscles that aren’t his don’t follow. The expected happens. There’s a bright white flash, a searing noise, pain unlike anything he’s ever felt— and then nothing.

Cause of death: lightning.

“I’m Liliana,” she says when Nico’s back in his body, ears still ringing. She quickly retracts her hand to tug on the end of her unruly curls instead. “We’re the Murphy siblings.” 

The littlest boy yawns, wide, and tugs on the end of Liliana’s nightgown. She doesn’t pay him any mind.

“Nice to meet you.” Nico’s voice shakes and cracks as he tries to pull himself back together after the vision. Struck by lightning is not an easy way to go. Nico would know.  He distracts himself from the sensory memory by rubbing his arms harshly and reminding himself of what he’s here to do.

“Where are all the others?” he asks, hoping that’ll be enough of a start. 

He’s not sure if the spirits here know they’re spirits. The ones in the Fields of Punishment do, but the ones in Asphodel don’t. Though, the spirits in Asphodel don’t know much at all.

“The others?” She raises an eyebrow. “Oh, you mean the rest of the ghosts. They hang out in the town’s center, that way.” Liliana points to her left, down the bridge. So she knows she’s dead. Interesting. 

“Then what are you doing out here?” Nico asks, curiosity getting the best of him.

“We’re waiting on our dad. Everyone who dies and comes here floats down this river.” Liliana shifts her pointing finger to the canal Nico just crawled out of. The River Styx, then. Nico is very glad he had the foresight not to jump right in. “He’ll be here eventually. He has to be. And we’re not moving until he does, because I don’t want to miss him.” Her siblings gather around her, huddling close at the mention of their father.

Nico’s getting distracted again, but he can’t help the way his heart clenches at her dedication. Unsurprisingly, he has a soft spot for siblings. He may not be able to take her and her siblings with him like he did with Hazel, a five ghost jailbreak is a few too many, but he can make sure they don’t wait on this bridge forever.

“What was your father’s name?” Nico asks. “Like, full name. If you know it?”

“Colin Murphy,” Liliana answers, but she looks suspicious. Nico repeats the name to himself a few times, hoping to Hades he remembers it when he gets out. “Why? You’re clearly not dead, like the boy right before you, so what could you possibly do?” 

The boy right before him?! Nico’s heart skips a beat. Will’s here. He made it.

“Was he blonde? Blue eyes? Freckles? About this tall?” Nico holds his hand up, a few inches above his own head.

Liliana looks even more suspicious now. “Yes… why?” 

But Nico’s already backing away, towards the center of town. Maybe finding Will can happen at the same time as finding Jason. As long as Will also went in the direction of the town’s center. Nico likes to think his boyfriend would be smart enough to make that call. Although, Will is always full of surprises.

“Did he go this way?” Nico asks, already a good few feet away from them and still backing up. 

Liliana’s expression is absolutely baffled, but she nods. As soon as she does, Nico turns around and breaks into a sprint.

“Thank you! I’ll see what I can do about your dad!” he calls over his shoulder. The only sound that follows is the heavy thunk of his own boots on the pavers. 

Bright, colorful buildings blur past as Nico runs for the town center. He rushes past an old woman tending to a flower stall, a group of teenagers huddled around the entrance to an abandoned looking building. The layout is all wrong, not like Venice at all, but the tall gothic buildings packed in like sardines make Nico feel like he could be running through the streets of Venice if he wasn’t paying attention. 

He slows to a jog as more faces flood the streets. People meander too and fro, expressions of bliss on their faces, carrying bread in baskets and chatting with friends. They pay him no mind as he bustles past. 

Up ahead, Nico finally spots the town’s official center. An open courtyard with a large fountain and a Greek-style statue in the middle, shattering the Venetian illusion. It’s of Persephone, a basket of pomegranates in her arm, long hair flowing around her like water and delicately covering her nude form. (Gross.) A few couples sit at the edges, giggling softly and sharing a tender moment. 

And now… to find the nearest gelato shop and hope Elysium only has the one. 

Nico looks around for a friendly face. In Elysium, that shouldn’t be too difficult. His eyes stray back to the fountain and its whispering couples. Closest to him, there’s a couple Nico swears he recognizes, but can’t place. A girl with long black waving hair and blue eyes that are strikingly bright against her deep olive skin, and she’s so radiantly beautiful that even if she wasn’t wearing a Camp Half-Blood necklace, Nico would know she was a daughter of Aphrodite. The boy with her also has a camp necklace on. He’s insanely buff, thousands of little white scars and long-healed burns littered across his dark skin. 

Nico swears he’s seen them recently… but where? 

Nico’s brain chugs along as he stands and stares, until he remembers— he’s having a hard time placing them because the last time he saw them was in a dream. Or, really, a nightmare. A nightmare about the day he found out Bianca died. 

Eyes darting around the room, desperate for one of the camp’s head counselors to answer him. Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf, two of many staring silently back at him. 

Nico’s heart doesn’t sink as much as he expected it to. Instead, he breathes a sigh of relief that they’re here, together again. Granted eternal happiness with the rest of the demigods from the Titan War, no matter their side. 

Nico is halfway to walking towards them when he wonders, briefly, if they’ll recognize him. It’s too late to worry about it, though, because he’s standing right in front of them and they’re looking up at him expectantly. 

“Um… hello,” Nico starts strong, as always. He’s great at first impressions. Can you tell? “Would you happen to know where the nearest gelato shop is?” 

Charles looks him up and down, an intense look in his eyes, and doesn’t answer. Silena, thank the gods, lights up with a big smile.

“Absolutely! Just down that way and take a left, darling. It’s the only one around, so you can’t miss it.” She winks at the end, and it sparks a blush to Nico’s cheeks. He’s pretty positive he doesn’t find women attractive, but he’d be damned if he ever said all children of Aphrodite weren’t drop dead gorgeous. He’d be damned by Aphrodite, specifically. 

“How are you lost in Elysium?” Charles asks, and if Nico was blushing before, all the blood permanently leaves his body at the deep tone of Charles’ voice. Time to leave!

“Thank you for the directions! Enjoy the afterlife!” Nico says like some sort of spokesperson for the Underworld, and turns hot on his heels to start running again in the direction Silena pointed him.

“Wait a minute! Nico?!” Charles calls after him, but it’s too late, Nico has already turned the corner. 

Nico is reading all the signs as quickly as he can as he sprints past. Thankfully, they’re in Italian and not English. Nico hates reading English. 

Not gelato, not gelato, not gelato, gelato! There, far in the distance, Nico sees the little shop he spotted Jason in front of in his dream. 

Nico scans the busy streets for a glimpse at close cropped blond hair, that uniform gray button down, maybe even a stray SPQR tattoo. He’s jogging closer to the shop, eyes flitting over every face that waltzes past him when, for a split second, Nico has a clear line of sight to the shop’s door. 

And there, stock still and standing right in front of the entryway, is—

“JASON!”

Nico breaks out into a sprint. 

Jason whips around, blue eyes wide and the cut on his lip stretching with shock, as Nico barrels through spirits to get to them.

"Sorry-- excuse me! Pardon me, if I could just,” Nico’s voice is apologetic but he doesn’t take his eyes off of Jason. Nico runs straight through any people in his path at full speed, vanquishing quite a few of them with stock apologies. They’ll be fine… right? 

“Jason!” Nico says again, skidding to a stop next to him, unable to keep the smile off of his face. Nico feels a relief so deep he nearly collapses on the spot. 

He doesn’t bother waiting for Jason to respond, throwing his arms around his friend and lets a sob that’s been waiting there for months rip free. 

Nico is immediately reminded that Jason is dead. His arms come into contact with cold, unyielding ghost . None of the warmth or care that Nico associates with the rare hug he’d let Jason have. It’s a terrible reminder of how much Nico misses those hugs. Nico goes stiff, but the tears have already started and they can’t stop. 

Ice cold hands shakily come to rest on Nico.

“Uh… hello…” Jason’s words sound empty and confused. His arms hover, like he’s not sure if he wants to fully hug back. Which almost makes Nico cry for an entirely different reason.

Nico needs to get it together. He doesn’t have time to have a breakdown right now. Thankfully, the magic of Elysium whisks his worst emotions away like a smooth breeze. 

Nico pulls back, wiping his tears on his sleeves.

“Alright, time to go, come on. We have to find Will and get out of here!” Nico chokes on every other word, hiccuping through his forced back tears. Nico holds his hand out to Jason, finally getting a good look at him for the first time in what feels like forever.

Oh, how good it is to see his face again.  

Except, now that Nico is seeing him up close, something is different than when they parted ways at Camp Half-Blood all those months ago. 

His hair is grown out, needing to be styled into place, and he looks… tired. Nico doesn’t think he’s ever seen Jason so weary, so beaten-down. Nico thought Elysium was meant to guarantee a happy afterlife. But there are bags under Jason’s eyes, the set of his shoulders is droopy and haggard, his blue eyes clouded over, and he’s nervously fiddling with his own fingers. 

Nico has never seen Jason nervously fiddle with anything.  

“I’m sorry, I can’t go anywhere,” Jason shakes his head. Wait, what? “I’m waiting on someone…” Jason looks over Nico’s shoulder, making Nico turn to look, too. 

“What? Who?” Nico asks. Something is definitely off about Jason. Unless Nico is severely misremembering his old friend, Nico thought he would at least be happy to see Nico. Right now, it’s like he’s looking through him, instead of at him.

“My friend Nico. I told him I’d take him here for gelato," Jason says, flitting back and forth. Nico goes completely still. 

Jason is waiting on… him?

“Oh,” Nico squeaks, and he has to swallow hard to keep the tears from starting all over again.

Nico remembers hugging Jason goodbye as he and Piper hovered outside of a fancy brand-new Ford Escalade with Tristan’s personal driver, sent to collect them and drive them all the way to California. “You’ll have to come out to California! I’ll take you to that little gelato shop in New Rome and you can tell me if it’s authentic or not,” Jason laughed, holding Nico close to his chest. Whenever Nico was feeling confident enough to go for a hug, Jason would always savor every moment of it— pulling Nico in too tight. 

“Well, you said the colors aren’t bright and the gelato isn’t piled too high, which are good signs. When I go see Hazel next… you can take me. That, um— that sounds fine,” Nico said, hiding his emotions by tilting his face into Jason’s embrace. He was still getting the hang of the whole friendship thing, back then. Hugs and talking about feelings and making plans were all overwhelming tasks. And yet, Nico remembers that for once, he really didn’t want to let go. 

Maybe Nico knew, somehow, that was the last time he was going to hug Jason. 

They stood there for far too long, until Piper cleared her throat and apologetically informed them that the driver was getting a little impatient with her. They pulled back, and Nico tried to scamper away, but Jason stopped him with a hand on the shoulder.

“Don’t be a stranger, okay? We’re friends,” he said, and leaned in close afterwards to whisper, “and good luck with Will.” Jason finally let go to walk back to his girlfriend and join her in the car, winking at Nico over his shoulder. The last time they saw each other. 

… That’s the memory Jason is holding onto in Elysium? That’s why he’s here, in front of this gelato shop? 

Like Liliana, Jason’s spirit pulses with something deep and festering. It’s different from the little girl’s, though. Hers seemed to be emboldening her— a deep regret keeping her tethered to the riverbanks of Elysium until the arrival of her father. Feuling her memories, sharpening her presence. Jason, however, reeks of confusion. He feels hollow. Something’s missing. Something’s wrong.

It reminds Nico of when he saw Percy at Camp Jupiter— tired, lost, but holding onto the tiniest threads of memory to keep going. A light that was in his eyes before, snuffed out.

And just like when he saw Percy at Camp Jupiter, Nico lies through his fucking teeth, emotions thick in his throat. Old habits die hard.

“Um, yeah! Nico… he’ll be here soon, I promise, but we have to go, uh— we have to go meet up with him!” Nico says, looking around nervously, hand still held out for Jason to take. None of the other spirits are paying them any mind, flitting in and out of the gelato shop as if Nico and Jason don’t exist.

“Meet up with Nico?” Jason’s eyes light up a little. The tiniest hint of excitement brightens his entire face, blond eyebrows un-creasing and scar tipping up into a smile. 

“Yeah! So, um, let’s go!” Tired of waiting for Jason to take it himself, Nico grabs Jason with the hand he was holding out. He pulls, dragging Jason along, which has to be at least somewhat voluntary, because as strong as Nico despite his size, he definitely can’t make Jason move unless he wants to. The other teen is built like a brick wall. Although, as a ghost, Nico probably could make Jason move. But Nico would prefer not to do it that way.

“Where are we meeting up?” Jason asks, lagging behind Nico as he’s pulled along.

“Um… hard to explain. It’s a little far, but don’t worry about it.” All of this talking about himself in the third person has Nico’s head spinning. 

“Far away? That can’t be right…” Jason questions as they peel around the same corner Nico just came from. The town-center rushes into view— Nico stops dead. Jason barrels into Nico from behind, almost sending the both of them sprawling. Despite still being out of the loop on who Nico is or where they’re going, he still catches Nico on instinct, steadying him against his chest. 

Nico’s not paying attention to that, though, because— 

There’s no way it’s going to be this easy, right?

Because that’s Will, standing in the town square, talking to two other boys who are definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, Will’s brothers. One looks like the spitting image of Will, only older and with no freckles and none of the Southern charm. He’s tall and blonde with Apollo’s cocky grin. The other, Nico recognizes immediately as Michael Yew. Dark hair, darker eyes. There are only so many people in the world that can pull off being 4’6” and still be so, so very intimidating. Leo should take notes.

Nico almost calls out to Will, but the look on Will’s face makes Nico hesitate. 

His eyes are as warm as a cup of hot cocoa on Christmas Day. They’re watery with unshed tears, a big, sad smile unlike anything Nico has ever seen takes up his entire face. It squishes up his cheeks and overshadows his eyes with the force of it. He looks radiant in the Elysium light— for a passing second, Nico thinks that if this sight was his eternity, maybe death isn’t so bad. The sheer amount of joy on Will’s face, talking to his brothers, is enough to fill Nico’s cup for a lifetime.

These are the siblings Will couldn’t save. These are the siblings Will paces his empty cabin thinking about, wishing they would come home. 

Nico can’t interrupt that, can he?

“Why did we stop?” Jason whispers. Nico jumps, turning to face Jason— he almost forgot the other boy was there. 

And Nico doesn’t have a good lie for that one, so he simply ignores him. 

He turns his gaze back to his boyfriend. He’s gushing about something to the taller blond, who is smiling at Will like he couldn’t be prouder, nodding along to every word. Will is halfway through gesturing wildly about something, looking around, when he catches sight of Nico. 

Will’s eyes widen with recognition, smile growing impossibly larger. 

“Nico!” He calls out. Will looks back at his brothers with excitement and grabs them by the hands. Much like Nico dragged Jason, Will drags them over to the pair. “Thank the gods. I thought I lost you! And you found Jason!” 

“Will…?” Jason whispers to himself, squinting, like he’s trying to figure out a particularly difficult Sudoku puzzle with Annabeth from the Sunday paper. Nico really misses the sight of him crowded into Percy’s cabin for group hang-out time, or piled onto one log with everyone else for sing-a-longs, trying to not-so-subtly convince Nico to go sit with Will, instead. 

“Jason, Nico, these are my brothers Lee and Michael.” Will gestures to the two boys behind him. Nico is embarrassed all over again, like when he first started hanging out with Kayla and Austin from the Apollo cabin. There’s something about Will’s siblings that make Nico more than a little desperate to be liked. He awkwardly lifts a hand up and waves.

The tall blond one, Lee, lifts his hand in a matching wave. So that’s Lee. Will tries not to play favorites, but Nico knows he misses Lee more than anything. He was the camp's healer before Will. He taught Will everything he knew (or everything he could, to a child) before his death at the Battle of the Labyrinth. Will never stops asking himself what Lee would do, how Lee would run the infirmary, how much better and easier healing would be at camp if Lee was still there.

Nico’s heart melts at Will standing proudly in front of the both of them.

“Lee, Michael, this is my boyfriend, Nico!” Will presents Nico with a wide grin. Once again, Nico’s stomach does a backflip at being introduced so easily by Will as his boyfriend. Nico thinks he’ll never get tired of hearing it. Jason makes a noise of confusion, muttering to himself. Nico can only pick up his own name being thrown in the mix, occasionally. They all watch as Jason loses himself to his own thoughts, and starts to wander away. 

Nico grabs him by the arm and hauls him back.

“And his best friend, Jason…” Will continues, but he’s looking between Nico and Jason, a concerned furrow in his brow. “Is he alright?” Will asks.

“He didn’t recognize me, but he said he was ‘waiting for Nico’, so I don’t know why he doesn’t know who I am,” Nico whispers back, hoping only Will and his brothers hear. He shrugs. 

Will cringes, but nods. It’s honestly not their biggest issue right now. They still have to find a way out of here. 

If Jason comes back with amnesia , their friend group is never going to let him live it down. Or, depending on how anarchical they’re feeling that day, they might try to fight all of the gods until they manage to punch whoever did this to Jason — again. Nico would really appreciate it if the gods stopped messing with Jason’s head.

“Nico, the son of Hades?” Michael raises a sharp eyebrow, pointed features scrunching further as he scrutinizes Nico for everything he’s worth.

“It’s good to see you,” Lee says, voice as smooth as butter, smiling as warm as the sun and sticking a hand out for Nico to shake. He’s surprised Lee remembers him. “I hear you help Will out a lot in the infirmary, which means you’re good in my books.” Nico blushes. 

“I try to. Though I still think Will is lying to me that people don’t find it weird for a son of Hades to be around while they’re trying to recover from their injuries.” Nico removes his hand from their shake to rub the back of his neck. 

“I don’t care how they feel about your presence! Someone has to cut bandages and I don’t have eight arms, despite what some of the campers might think,” Will huffs. Lee laughs in sympathy and pats Will on the back. 

“Some things never change,” Lee says, shaking his head. “You three should get going. It was really good to see you…” He trails off, staring at Will like he’s a hundred yards away.

“Yeah! I’ll, um… I’ll see you guys later?” 

“It better be much later!” Michael scoffs, pointing an accusatory finger at Will. His posture mellows when he glances at Nico. "And you, too." Nico's chest warms at being included.

“Yes, sir!” Will giggles, and makes no moves to actually walk away. 

Will looks forlorn at his brothers. Nico can tell he doesn’t want to leave so he steps closer, gently running a hand across Will’s back. He makes sure not to let go of Jason, though, who is eyeing the side street Nico brought him over from, longing to return to his post in front of the gelato shop.

“You can talk to them again, you know? I can summon them,” Nico says, soft.

Will turns wide, blue eyes on him. “Really?!” His eyes dart over to his brothers and then back at Nico. “It won’t drain you? I don’t want you using your powers for that if—”

“It takes, like, no effort. I promise. It’s more of a ritual I can do than an innate power.” Nico shrugs, ducking his head like there are still bangs to hide behind. 

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Will says, awe in his voice. The admiration is too much for Nico, who has to turn around with a blush to avoid melting on the spot.

“As cute as this is,” Lee laughs, “I think you better get going. I’ve been here long enough to know that the longer you stay, the harder it’ll be to leave. I can feel your soul trying to disconnect from your body.”

“Oh that’s… bad.” Will says, turning to share a panicked look with Nico. “Okay, okay, we’re going. Um… talk to you guys later!” Will gives his brothers one last watery smile. Nico knows that look well— the longing in his eyes, the clench of his fists. Nico thinks of Bianca. With a gentle pull, Nico guides Will away from them. 

Will doesn’t let Nico take his hand back— Nico stares down at their linked fingers, a fluttering in his chest.

“I promise we’ll summon them again soon. But for now, we should get out of here before we can’t,” Nico looks at the sky above them. The sun is getting lower, but that means little to nothing. Time is weird in the Underworld , it’s bound to be completely different in Elysium.

“Right, well, I don’t know about you, but I have only one idea about how to get out of here. And it’s back the way we came,” Will says, pointing at the side street that leads back to the canal. 

“That’s as good of a start as any,” Nico says, Will holding his right hand and his left making sure to hold Jason by the arm. They start making their way down the street, hand in hand in… arm.

“Sorry for getting distracted, by the way. I was looking for you and Jason, I swear, I just… saw them in the distance, and—” Will blinks back tears, shaking his head free of his emotions as he looks at Nico.

“It’s okay! Really, I would have done the same thing. If I saw Bianca… I would have totally abandoned the mission,” Nico laughs.

They giggle and walk down the street, none of the other patrons of Elysium paying them any mind. The faux sun is now dipping at the horizon, spreading purples and pinks across the city like oil. 

Halfway through their walk, Jason randomly speaks up.

“Why are we going to the Little Tiber?” Jason asks, stumbling along as Nico pulls him forward. 

“The Little Tiber?” Nico raises an eyebrow. “We’re in Elysium… why would it be the Little Tiber? Do you… do you think we’re in New Rome?” Nico asks. He gets no answer from Jason, of course. Just a blank, far away stare. 

“Does it look different for everyone?” Will asks. “It looks like my grandparents’ farm, to me. The water I came down was a little freshwater stream. What did it look like for you?” Nico flushes under Will’s stare.

“It... uh… it looks like Italy to me. I came down a canal on a gondola,” he admits with a laugh. 

“The money I would pay to see you on a gondola,” Will laughs, squeezing Nico’s hand. It almost feels like they’re going on a romantic little walk. Only… they have an amnesiac Jason with them. Honestly, not the weirdest thing Nico could picture for his demigod life. “Did you almost fall in like you did with the canoe or—”

“Shut up!” Nico shoves him lightly, laughing. “...Maybe.” 

“It is the River Styx, though. That much I figured out. So we can’t swim upstream to get out,” Nico says as they come up to the bridge. Will hums in acknowledgement.

Four pairs of eyes look up as they approach— the little kids are still there, now sitting in a circle and playing hand games to pass the time. 

To Nico’s absolute shock, Jason pulls out of his grip and walks towards them. He situates himself in their circle easily, and they accommodate him on instinct. “Hey!” Jason smiles, easy and bright. It’s the first glimpse of the Jason he remembers since they’ve arrived. 

Nico is even more surprised to see Liliana’s eyes soften at the sight of Jason.

“You know each other?” Nico asks Liliana as him and Will walk up behind Jason.

“You’re back,” Liliana says instead of answering. “On your way out already?” 

Liliana’s siblings abandon their game to climb up and on Jason like a living jungle-gym. He laughs and scoops them and sets them back down to start over again. Jason would make friends in the afterlife with the least likely people. 

“If we can find a way out of here, yeah,” Nico looks around, not feeling very hopeful. The city goes on in every direction. He wouldn’t be surprised if it’s an eternity of abandoned side alleys and buildings. 

“How do you know him?” Liliana asks, casting her gaze towards Jason as he entertains her siblings as their new climbing wall.

“He’s an old friend…” Nico doesn’t elaborate.

“You’re demigods, aren’t you?” Liliana raises a light eyebrow at Nico. She looks him directly in the eyes, as if she’s challenging Nico to say no, to lie. 

“I feel like it’s pretty obvious,” Will laughs, gesturing to himself and to Nico. He’s right— it’s not like mortals walk around with full swords strapped to their hips. At least, not these days. And Nico has, after spending many years around mortals, found that they lack… something. Will shines like he belongs to the sun, Percy’s face tells the story of a thousand lifetimes, Jason may as well be a perfectly carved Roman statue, Annabeth’s eyes hold the wisdom of the oldest recorded histories, Piper holds herself like she knows she could tear the world down with her words. Even Leo’s spark is an otherworldly, wild energy, and sweet Hazel and Frank can turn on a dime and carry the power of the legion in their posture. 

Nico hasn’t come across many mortals who radiate the same sort of… raw power. Except for Sally Jackson. Nico is still convinced she is some sort of goddess of the sea in disguise.

Liliana sighs, looks to Jason and then back to Will and Nico. Her shoulders droop, and those waves of grief connect with her spirit rather than just radiating outwards. “I’m a daughter of Hypnos, and my siblings are children of Hypnos too. There’s no good way out of here, trust me. I tried that before we started waiting for my father.” 

“ Oh, the Murphy siblings! What is with the gods and picking partners whose last names are, like, a little too on the nose—” Will is joking but Nico isn’t listening. Children of Hypnos, like children of Hades, walk a fine line between the living and the dead. Which would explain why, even more so than other powerful demigods, Liliana can retain her sense of self here. And if, like Lee implied with his vitalkinesis of knowing Will and Nico’s souls were flickering, and Silena’s lasting charm, demigods retain some of their powers in Elysium… 

Screw walking up the river for an eternity for an exit they know doesn’t exist. The Murphy siblings are their ticket out of Elysium. 

“I have an idea.” 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

They stand off to the side, close enough that the Murphy siblings can still see the water but far enough that they won’t risk falling into the Styx if something goes haywire. Nico is just glad there are shadows, now, in the setting sun, or this plan would be useless. He swears in the searing midday they arrived in that there was nothing but bright white light around every nook and cranny. 

“You really think you can shadow travel us out of here with their help?” Will asks, genuine nerves tinting the edges of his voice. It’s not the usual what if you overexert yourself worries. This time, it’s more of a what if we all get lost halfway between the two planes and fizzle out of existence worry. Which Nico shares. But he doesn’t see anyone else offering up another solution.

“I think I can, but I’ll definitely pass out afterwards. Hopefully our bags are still where we left them. I’m going to aim us for that rock we were hiding behind.” Nico paces back and forth. The shadows here feel unnatural. He wouldn’t dare attempt to shadow travel with them under any other circumstances. But with a few children of Hypnos’ help, he might be able to connect this realm to the Underworld. After all, what is Elysium if not a never-ending pleasant dream?

“You think you can isn’t really a vote of confidence,” Liliana raises an eyebrow. She has a lot of sass for such a young kid, but then Nico remembers literally every other kid he knows this age from camp and immediately corrects himself. She has the correct amount of sass for a young kid.

“I don’t like the idea either, but we don’t really have any other choice,” Nico says. They’re so close, but this could be the hardest part. 

He hasn’t succeeded yet. Nico cannot forget that he hasn’t succeeded yet. 

“Why did you come in here in the first place? Just to get him?” Liliana eyes Jason, who is busy entertaining the littlest boy by showing him how to make shadow puppet wolves on the ground. Even with no memories, Jason really is still Jason. “What makes him so special?”

The way she says it isn’t judgmental. It’s curious. Spoken by someone who understands. Nico thinks about it, and there’s really only one good answer.

“Like I said, he’s my friend,” is all Nico says on the matter. 

“You think that just because you’re a son of Hades the rules of death don’t apply to you?” She asks, a twinkle in her eyes.

Nico rolls his eyes. “They apply, I just don’t care.” He is pleasantly surprised that Liliana smiles, laughs to herself with a small nod, red curls bouncing.

“We know,” Will laughs at him. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Will pulls him close and kisses the top of his head. 

There’s a lapse in conversation, Liliana staring up at the sky.

“So I’m just supposed to think about the above world really hard while you teleport? And hold your shoulder? How is that going to help?” she scoffs, crossing her little arms over her chest. 

“It’ll help me aim up and out of this realm, towards the Underworld. Shadow traveling from the mortal realm to the Underworld is like falling, and in reverse it’s like flying,” Nico says. “But they’re not nearly as difficult to move between as Elysium will be. I’ll need a guide, which is where you come in. You’re basically serving as a map. I just need you to trust me, and don’t break concentration. I promise, if you do this for me, I’ll check where your dad is and make sure that as soon as he’s dead he makes it right here to you.”

That’s all it takes. Liliana nods, determined, and holds her hands out to her siblings. “Let's do this, then.”

This is insane, but Nico got them into this mess and he’s going to get them out.  

Will steers Jason over to them, and the three of them stand in a circle, holding hands. The first pair of small hands reaches up for his shoulder. And then one on his left forearm, another on his right. The last tiny pair of hands comes to rest on his calf. 

Nico swears to himself he’s going to bring Colin Murphy back for these kids. They just need to make it out of this alive.

“Everybody, think about your favorite memories of home really, really hard,” Liliana tells her siblings in this melancholic, bittersweet tone that pulls at the strings of Nico’s heart. He feels the moment they all start really thinking— love and sunshine and home filling his ribcage to the brim. 

“Ready?” Nico looks to Will.

“Hurry up, Shark Boy, because Lava Girl is two seconds from chickening out,” Will’s laugh comes out as more of a nervous squeak. That’s a new one. Shark boy?! Nico stares at his boyfriend, incredulous that he’s bringing up that stupid movie right now when they’re about to either dematerialize forever or get in huge trouble for bringing a soul back from Elysium, of all places. 

“What if those are your last words,” Nico says, halfway between laughing and having a panic attack. He closes his eyes letting the waves of emotions from the Murphy siblings crash over him. 

“Uh, new last words. Kayla can have all of my cargo shorts,” Will says, closing his eyes tight. Nico lets out a burst of laughter.

“She’s not going to want them. No one does,” Nico mumbles to himself, closing his eyes too. 

Time for them to go. 

“Why would they be his last words?” Jason tilts his head, far too calm of a reaction for a question like that, but Nico is already calling on the shadows. 

“If this goes badly,” Nico breathes, cracking one eye open to look over to Will’s face, scrunched up tight and every muscle tensed. Drinks in his presence one last time, just in case. “I’m sorry—”

They’re whisked away into the shadows.

He aims up and up and up, the hopes and wants of the Murphy siblings flowing through him. Up. And up. And up.

The air moves like syrup around him. The ringing in his ears grows and grows in volume until it’s unbearable. Nico tries to open his eyes, but it’s only darkness, so he squeezes them shut again. Not dark, like the shadows, but absence, emptier and darker than the depths of Tartarus. He can tell his hands are still clasped, but he can’t feel Will or Jason on the other ends. Letting go is not an option, though. Nico clenches tighter even though there’s no sensation in his hands.

Up. And up. Slower. And slower. Dread sets in. Panic. They're not going to make it. This was a mistake. It's not enough—

“Are you insane, Nico?” A voice echoes in his ears. His father. “This was never going to work—” There’s a deep, ragged breath. Nico has never heard his father’s voice so warbly. So close to tears. He tries to call out to him, but he can’t speak.

“I can only turn a blind eye for so long, Nico. Persephone directly interfering was one thing, but I am part of the Big Three. It would be directly against my brother’s wishes. I cannot help you here, but you aren’t going to make it on your own.” 

Nico can feel the Murphy children still down below, their hopes and wants and memories propelling him sluggishly forward, but Hades is right. Nico can’t feel the end of this jump, still, and their signal to Elysium is already wavering. 

They’re going to die here, in this liminal place. Lost to time and space. Scattered across the planes between dimensions.

“Pray, Nico. Pick a god other than me, and pray,” Hades commands, begs.

Their movement slows, the molasses shadows closing in around them. Nico’s brain stutters and spins, trying to catch any fleeting thoughts to carry out Hades’ demand. He can feel his consciousness slipping, his grip on reality fading away— when something glows in the corner of his vision. 

Will’s sword.

Jason’s sword, and they have him with them.

Juno’s sword. And her two champions.

Juno, please, if you can hear me, Nico shouts in his brain. I just need to make it back to the Underworld. I can do the rest. I can bring Jason back. I need help, please.

At first, nothing. 

Nico’s consciousness slips. He forces his eyes back open, desperately clinging onto life, and the sword glows brighter. And brighter. And brighter. 

The shadows clear, Nico’s tether to the Murphy siblings severs. 

And he passes out.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“Nico? Nico!” 

Just one more minute. Or fifteen. Or an eternity would do, too.

“Come on, Nico. I know you’re alive. I can feel it. Wake up.”

The cold rock feels like heaven underneath Nico. He wants to strip down and press his feverish body against it forever. But he can’t move, so he wills the rock up around him instead. 

“No! Stop that!” Something pulls him off of the ground, and Nico groans. He wants the ground back. He was so comfortable. 

His fingers twitch first. And then his toes. The sensations of his body slowly fight through the fuzziness of his head— he’s limp in someone’s arms, the searing contact of whoever it is running under his legs and around back, holding him against their chest.

“Jason— stop wandering away, man.” 

Jason? 

Nico wiggles his fingers and toes again, trying to get the ants inside them to go away. 

“Nico, please, you have to wake up.” The words are whispered against his hairline, soft, gentle lips against his skin that he recognizes like second nature.

“Will...?” Nico mutters. His throat feels like used sandpaper. 

“Yes! Nico!” There’s a lot of excited noises, Nico gets tugged closer to Will’s chest. “Are you awake enough to eat some ambrosia?” 

“Mmm—” Nico means to say yes, but he hums back instead. The square of goodness is being pressed to his lips anyways. This time, it tastes like Sally Jackson’s cookies. Nico moans around the taste before he can stop himself. 

Like clearing tv static, his limbs regain feeling. But the more his senses come back to him, the more he wishes they wouldn’t.

His head pounds, his mouth feels like the Sahara. He feels like every inch of his flesh was fed through a meat grinder, twice.

“More,” Nico groans, reaching out blindly for the ambrosia, but his hands smack against something solid instead. Will.

“No, no more. I’ve already force fed you enough, you’re burning up. The only thing keeping you from ambrosia-induced combustion is my powers,” Will frets. “What did you do? I’m still not convinced we didn’t die during that jump and I’m just having a very realistic end of life hallucination.” Nico’s guts churn in protest when Will sets him back down on the ground and hugs him close, jostling his throbbing skull. 

“Didn’t… didn’t die?” Nico barely manages to string the words together, mouth full of cotton. 

“I don’t think we did,” Will laughs, burying his face into Nico’s neck. Something wet starts to trickle down his skin into the hem of his shirt. 

Tears. Will is crying.

What did he do?

Nico gasps for air as the memories come flooding back. The thick air, his father— Pray.

And the glowing sword.

Nico collapses back against the ground, arms coming up to pull Will into him with a vice grip. 

“I’m s’orry,” Nico groans, only half getting out words. “— almost didn’t make it. Had to—” Nico stops himself. Shakes his head. Not important right now. He swallows the lump in his throat.

“But you did it.” Will presses into Nico’s skin, a promise. “I don’t know how you did it. I blacked out the second we fazed out of Elysium.”

“Built different,” Nico croaks one of Austin’s favorite jokes into the side of Will’s face, causing the other boy to absolutely lose it with laughter, flopping to the side in his hysterics. 

He laughs, and laughs, and laughs— and Nico can barely keep his eyes open but he has to watch. Everything else hurts so bad right now, he has to watch Will be happy to keep himself from breaking down in agony. 

“Is he okay?” Oh— Jason. Jason glides over to them, well and truly a ghost now — blue and shimmery and transparent at the edges in his button down and undone tie, a bloody splotch right in the center of his chest — hovering above Will and watching him nearly piss his pants Lester-style from laughing so hard. 

“S’fine,” Nico sniffles with a smile, wiping the tears from his eyes with his dirt-caked palms and making everything infinitely worse. “Feel any different?” Nico asks. He’s almost positive the answer is going to be no until they actually make it to the mortal realm. Those cloudy eyes stare back at him. 

“What do you mean?” Jason asks back. That’s a no, then. 

“You’ll see what I mean when we get to the surface,” Nico laughs, soft, still watching his boyfriend fondly as he rolls around on the ground. 

“We all almost just died, Jason for a second time, and all you can say to me is built different?! I hate you!” Will gasps for air, covering his face with his arms. 

Nico takes deep breaths, still adjusting to being awake and alive again. He’s a master at catching back up after blacking out, at this point. And even better at pushing forward when every bone in his body may as well be broken. 

Eventually, Will’s giggling dies down enough that he can stand. He offers a hand to Nico. “Do you want to try standing, or should I carry you?” Will asks. 

They need to get moving again, but Nico is almost positive he can’t walk right now. His legs feel like they were deep fried. 

Nico looks up at his boyfriend, Jason hovering behind him unable to stay still. Jason’s not even alive yet and Nico’s stomach is already doing the flips at seeing them both here, side by side. 

“I’d lie and try to stand, but I can’t feel my legs right now,” Nico grimaces. “But you’re probably tired, too, so—” Nico doesn’t get to finish his sentence before he’s being scooped up and over Will’s shoulders.

No matter how many times Will picks him up in a fireman's carry after a powers-exhaustion incident, Nico will never be able to stop the blush that takes over his face as he comes face to face with Will’s ass.

“Th'nks,” he whispers, meaning every bit of it. 

“Of course. I’m not that tired, just a little shaken up. I should be good to carry you for a while,” Will pats Nico’s back gently.

 Nico pushes himself up slightly, away from Will’s butt, reaching a hand out to Jason. 

“Hold my hand. And don’t let go, okay?” Nico is too tired to care if he puts his powers into his words or not. He’s brought Jason this far, if he has to command Jason’s ghost around a little bit to cross the finish line, so be it. Jason nods. Cold, wavering ghost hand comes in contact with Nico’s own, and Nico can’t stop himself from shivering. 

“Train is leaving the station! Everyone ready?” Will asks, like the weirdo he is. 

Nico swats him with his free hand and a laugh. “We’re supposed to be stealthy!” Which, at this point, their cover has been blown ten times over— but they should at least pretend to care.

“Oops, my bad,” Will pitches his voice down to a whisper. “Choo choo.” The barely audible noise sends Nico into a giggling fit as they march off into the Underworld. 

Nico’s not too worried about it. He has a feeling his dad won’t be stopping them.

Chapter Text

“Run faster!” 

“I’m doing my best!” Will shouts as he sprints, still carrying Nico on his back. Nico has to grip Jason’s hand like his life depends on it as he’s jostled around, head smacking into Will’s shoulder over and over again.

Record scratch.  

Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.

Well, you see, Nico made a small error in his calculations during their escape from the Underworld. He was so relieved about not having to sneak under his father’s nose, that he forgot about the other entities of the Underworld who wouldn’t want him to leave.

They took the main gate out, and they didn’t make it five steps before Cerberus saw Nico and did what he always does when he sees Nico: ran directly at him. 

Nico forgot that not everyone was a fan of three-headed dog monsters running at them, mouth wide open. Of course, Will panicked, and started running away. Still carrying Nico.

So much for being quiet.

But that’s how they end up with Nico’s favorite dog (sorry, Mrs. O’Leary) bounding after them, all three tongues hanging out and flinging slobber everywhere as he runs in an impromptu game of high-stakes tag. One of the heads lunges forward to snap at Jason’s ghost. Nico frantically pulls him closer.

Now, they’re not in danger of being eaten, but they are in danger of spending the next seven hours playing catch with Cerberus and giving him enough tummy rubs to appease him. And if Jason gets snapped up, Nico can only imagine he’ll be banished right back to Elysium or somewhere else in the Underworld. And after everything they just went through to get him here, that would not be ideal.

Nico looks around for an out from over Will’s shoulder and spots a crack in the rockface surrounding the Underworld. An exit. Unlike the main entrances and exits of the Underworld, this one is barely large enough to stand up in, which makes it perfect. Because Cerberus won’t be able to follow.

“Go left! There’s an exit— oof—” Nico calls out, cut off as Will following his instructions results in taking a hard turn, slamming Nico into his back.

Will crouches down and dives into the opening. Nico yanks Jason’s ghost with them, just in time for Cerberus to slam into the rock wall, collapsing the mouth of the cave. Will crouches down, hands over his and Nico’s heads as debris falls around them. Jason’s ghost wavers as pieces of the cave fall through him.

The rumbling stops, and Will slowly stands back up, staring at the exit to the Underworld they just destroyed.

“Well… I hope we don’t need to go back to the Underworld for anything,” Will says, panting. He gently lowers Nico to the uneven rocky floor. 

“I forgot my sword! We have to go back!” Nico gasps. Will whips around, concerned, only to realize Nico is still holding it. Will flips him off, and Nico devolves into giggles.

“You’re the worst,” Will says, but he laughs and lowers himself to the ground. 

Cerberus whimpers on the other side of the cave-in, all three heads sniffing for his new friends. 

“Sorry bud! We’ll be back to pet you another time, I promise!” Nico yells, hoping Cerberus can hear him. There’s a bark followed by the sad sound of paws plopping away. Nico makes a mental note to bring him extra treats next time he visits the Underworld.

“Um… Where are we?” It’s the first thing Jason has said in hours. He has to lean down a few inches to avoid phasing through the walls, but Nico realizes with a start that Jason is actually looking pretty solid. He’s not alive yet, still a little see-through and blue at the edges, but normal enough that, at a quick glance, you might not know the difference. The front of his shirt is tattered and bloody — like it would have been when he died — and his glasses are bent at a funny angle. Nico catches Will’s gaze and they share a look.

They’re so close.

“We’re almost to the surface. You doin’ alright?” Will asks Jason. Nico smiles — you can take the boy out of the infirmary, but you can’t take the infirmary out of the boy. Will examines Jason, leaning left and right in the tiny corridor. He tries to grab Jason’s arm, the way he does to Nico to check his pulse, but his hand passes right through.

Okay, maybe not that close. 

“I’m… fine…” Jason pauses and, for the first time, looks around like he’s actually seeing where they are. The dark corridor has stalactites hanging from the ceiling further in, stretching into darkness after just a few feet. Clouded eyes flick down to Will’s side— settling on the golden gladius there for a moment. Nico half expects Jason to suddenly remember everything, but Jason only pulls at his top lip, chewing at his scar as his brows furrow in concentration. “The surface? What do you mean, the surface?” 

“You’ll see,” Nico waves his hand around, hoping Jason will drop it for now. Nico turns to Will. “Hazel was also pretty confused until we made it out. Hopefully he’ll be back to normal when he’s alive again?” Nico doesn’t fully believe himself, and it seems neither does Will, who shrugs with a concerned look on his face. 

Only one way to find out.

“Let’s get going. This is some random entrance to the Underworld, so there’s no telling where it’ll spit us out until we get there,” Nico says, pushing himself up on still-wobbly legs and dusting off his skinny jeans. Breaking in his new boots turned out to be a terrible idea, the ache in the balls of his feet and the blisters at his heel making the pain in his legs ten times worse. 

“Are you okay to walk?” Will asks, standing too and reaching arms out to Nico in case he needs help. Nico shoots him a sweet smile. 

“I don’t think there’s enough room to carry me in here, Solace,” Nico laughs, pointing at the sharp ceiling, teeming with dangerous stalactites. “I’m not looking to lose my head today.” 

“I’d figure it out!” Will protests, but he laughs, too, not pushing the subject any further. 

“I’m sure you would,” Nico makes the words sound sarcastic, but he means it. If it came down to it, Will would figure it out. Doing things for others at his own expense is Will’s specialty. 

Once they’re all dusted off and all of their backpacks are re-assembled, Nico grabs Jason’s arm again. The three of them peer into the dark.

“A little light, please?” Nico asks Will, who rolls his eyes, but starts glowing lightly. “Thank you!” Nico plants a kiss on Will’s cheek (there’s a confused noise from Jason that Nico chooses to ignore), and tugs Jason into the cave barely larger than a crawlspace. Nico tamps down the feeling of panic at the tight space— having Will here, brightening the path, and Jason at his side keeps the thoughts of the jar at bay. For now, at least. The path twists and turns, and they have to pick their way through carefully so as to not be impaled or cause any more cave-ins. 

After a few minutes, the corridor ends right in front of an old-looking elevator. The kind Nico remembers seeing a few times in his childhood— not in the Lotus Hotel, but his actual childhood. It’s old, rusted with time, but it’s gorgeous.

The front is a gate instead of a door, gold-painted metal bars closing it off from the Underworld, barely any spaces between each bar. The thick frame is also gold, with an impressive carving of each of the three fates. One on the right, one on top, and one on the left, each facing the entrance to the elevator and holding the string of one person’s fate. The last is poised to cut— a sight no demigod wants to see. At the top, the floor counter only has two labels for the hand to point to: Dead and Alive. A strange distinction, Nico thinks, given that there are plenty of dead who walk the Earth and living who walk the Underworld, himself included. There’s a red light fixed just above it, dormant. 

“Going up!” Nico says, and pushes the only button on the elevator available. The red light flickers on. 

A loud, grinding noise fills the room and they all cringe back from it. Someone should really oil this elevator shaft. Nico will have to let Daedelus know next time he’s at his father’s palace for non-quest reasons. 

The elevator dings open. 

The wooden interior looks equally old, cables visible through the gold cage of the sides. Nico takes a deep breath.

Again, he looks to Will. 

“Ready?” Will asks, putting his hand in the elevator so it doesn’t shut.

“I don’t think I get a choice,” Nico says, and drags Jason in. 

The ride up is silent. Both Nico and Will stare at Jason as the elevator climbs and climbs, old gears creaking. 

At first, nothing changes. Jason remains a ghost for a solid five minutes— long enough that Nico and Will keep sharing secret worried glances. Jason stands stock still between them, completely unaware of their growing concern and staring at the ceiling like he’s still trying to figure out where he is. It makes Nico even more nervous that Jason isn’t talking. He was never the most extroverted guy, but it’s unusual for him not to try and at least make polite conversation. 

Anxious seconds and minutes tick by, Nico hyper-focused on where his hand is on Jason’s arm and staring at his face and clothes, just in case something changes. 

Finally, something does. 

Nico’s hand starts to go cold, the life being sapped from his skin— the way it does when you sit on concrete in the winter or step into too-cold water. He’s not sure if it’s a good different, but it is different. Nico tries squeezing a little bit, and finds he meets resistance. He’s making actual contact with Jason’s body, not just ghost-powers contact. The problem is, Jason’s wrist feels more like that of a dead man than a ghost. Solid, squishy, soft skin, but lacking the heat that radiates off of a typical human body. It freaks Nico out more than a little bit. Dead-Body-Jason is far scarier than Ghost-Jason. 

To make matters worse, Nico looks up and Jason is pale. A body drained of blood. Cloudy blue eyes stay trained on the ceiling. 

Nico chooses not to tell Will about this development. His boyfriend is busy watching the dirt pass by as the elevator rises. Nico also chooses not to think about it. Which isn’t really a thing the human brain can do, so he proceeds to think about it a lot. 

Until… Nico’s hand gets sweaty. The hand Nico has around Jason’s arm starts to grow hot to the touch, warmth radiating off of Jason’s skin. His sharp breath alerts Will, who looks down at where Nico and Jason are touching. They both look up at Jason’s face, and there’s finally pink in his cheeks. He’s not see-through anymore, and there’s no blue glow. Will looks back down at Nico, excitement in his eyes, and Nico’s face threatens to break out into a smile— but he can’t. Not yet. Not until it’s a guarantee. 

Because he won’t be able to stomach the pain and disappointment if something goes wrong. 

Another ten minutes pass. And then another. And another. Silence, as the elevator chugs along. Nico’s body hums with excitement, because with each passing second, Jason looks more like himself. His skin fills in with its correct sunny pale, the blood fully returns to his lips and ears and the tips of his fingers, and his chest starts to slowly rise and fall with breath. Jason is breathing. Will takes hold of Jason’s other arm, likely feeling for his vitals, and shoots Nico a thumbs up. Both boys smile like idiots at one another. 

This is working. Nico can’t believe this is working.

After what feels like days, the elevator dings. The gate slides open. 

Nico, grinning like a maniac, wraps both arms around one of Jason’s and, with Will’s help, hauls Jason out of the elevator, the two of them giddy with laughter. 

Will’s face drops as the second they stumble out of the elevator and Jason falls to his knees and vomits. Jason reaches for his own throat and grabs at it desperately, coughing and gagging as he hacks up a not-insignificant amount of blood and black goop. This isn’t Nico’s first re-aliving rodeo, so he doesn’t even flinch.

Will’s panicked squawk reminds Nico that this is Will’s first re-aliving rodeo.

“What’s wrong with him?!” Will shouts, scrambling to wrap his hands over Jason’s and search Jason’s body for the issue with his powers. He must come up with nothing, because he looks more bewildered than before he connected himself to Jason’s central nervous system. 

“He’s rebooting. It’ll be over in a second,” Nico squats next to where Jason is groaning, and rubs his back like he’s vomiting from a hangover and not spitting anti-life matter onto the crusty concrete floors of whatever abandoned building they’ve come up into. 

The setting feels right. Nico gets the feeling someone has done exactly this in exactly this spot at least once before. There are far too many mysterious stains along the floor and walls. 

“Should I…?” Will gestures to Jason, and Nico nods. It’s not like a little healing magic would hurt the guy, if Will is up for it.

Will closes his eyes and glows a little brighter, pouring some general healing magic into Jason’s body. It must do something, because Jason’s pained moans quiet to a dull hiccup. 

“What—?” Jason croaks out, throat dry and unused. He blinks his eyes open— they’re still cloudy like they were in Elysium, graying skies instead of bright blue. 

“Welcome back to being alive,” Nico whispers, considering throwing up jazz hands for comedic effect, but Jason isn’t looking up at him so the joke would be lost. He does, however, lean in and bully his way into a hug. Nico’s pretty sure he shifts his knee into some of Jason’s… mess… when he does it, but he ignores that in favor of sighing into the warmth of his friend’s chest. Strong arms wrap hesitantly around Nico’s shoulders. 

“...Nico?” Jason breathes out. He remembers.

“Mhm—” Nico barely manages to hum out his reply before the flood-gates open up. He can’t tell himself to hold back any longer. There are no more excuses. 

Jason is back. He’s… he’s alive. 

Nico did it.

The first cry is barely a gasp. And then another. 

And then tears are running fast down Nico’s cheeks, chest shaking with the effort of breathing through them. He’s holding Jason so tight, like he’s afraid he might disappear again at any moment. 

“I— I missed you—” The words come out in a stutter, interrupted by the borderline hyperventilating of Nico’s crying. 

“I—” Jason starts, but stops, voice choked up. “What’s going on? Where are we?” he whispers, square fingers curling into Nico’s shirt. “Why are you crying? I’m sorry, I don’t understand—”

Blood roars in Nico’s ears, going light headed. 

Nico rears back to shout, to scream, to do something with his fury and his confusion and demand that Jason remember— he has to remember that he fucking died , but then there’s a hand on his shoulder. Will. 

“Jason?” Will asks, slowly leaning forward as though approaching a skittish, injured animal. “Do you remember anything?” 

They’re no strangers to amnesiac demigods. Nico wants to punch a wall in his frustrations. Why does this keep happening to Jason? 

He tries to pull back fully to give Jason space to answer, but the older boy holds him tight. A small piece of hope sparks in Nico’s chest that at least, even if Jason doesn’t remember anything, there are some things that never change. Like him entertaining the little ones with shadow dogs. Like him not wanting to let Nico go once he’s been granted the rights to a hug.

For once in his life, Nico lets it happen without protest. He leans back in, burying his face against Jason’s shoulder— warm, solid. Alive. He breathes in, breathes out. Jason smells like salt and iron— bloody and electric. 

If there are more steps, so be it. As long as he can have Jason back. As long as they can all have Jason back. 

“I remember you guys. We’re… you’re my friends, right? I was waiting for Nico to go get gelato, and then…” Jason can’t finish the sentence, drawing a blank. Nico feels his words rumbling deep in his chest more than he hears them. Clouded eyes dart from Will’s face to Nico’s, searching for answers. 

“And before that?” 

“Before that?” Jason asks back, confused. He tries to adjust his glasses, but finds them twisted and broken, and pulls them off his face to turn his confusion onto the bent frames instead of Nico and Will.

“What did you do yesterday,” Will tries again, taking a different tactic. 

“Yesterday, I…” This time, there’s a much longer pause. Nico turns his face to watch Jason’s scrunch in concentration. The hand holding his glasses twitches and clenches, thinking. 

And then his face goes slack, his eyes flutter, and he’s right back to normal. As if he were being reset. “I went on the boat with Piper. And… some of her friends…” 

Went on the boat. That’s the fucking understatement of the year. Jason says it as if he and Piper planned a fun day at the beach, and not jumped from evil cruise ship to evil cruise ship to their death. 

Jason’s face drops when Nico and Will exchange looks instead of responding. 

“Is that not right? I’m really sorry—”

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Will jumps right into soothing mode. He talks to Jason the way he talks to the younger campers when he has to patch them up after a bad climbing wall fall or capture the flag incident. 

This time, when Nico tries to pull back from the hug, Jason lets him go. Nico stands on shaky legs, very pointedly ignoring the substances dripping from his pants. He holds a hand out to Jason, who takes it without hesitation, letting the smaller boy pull him to his feet.

Thankfully, the adrenaline of the day hasn’t worn off yet, and Nico is able to wipe his eyes and steady his breathing. 

“You hit your head really hard, we’re just trying to make sure your memory is okay,” Nico lies to Jason again, the action coming too easily. Nico’s not sure he buys it, because that doesn’t really explain why Nico burst into tears, but it seems to be good enough for Jason. He does hit his head a lot, so at least that’s believable. Eventually, Jason nods, and slides his still-broken glasses back onto his face. 

The light of the hallway flickers, reminding Nico that they’re in an abandoned underground hallway in the middle of… anywhere. They could be anywhere. Beijing, Moscow, New York— it’s not like Nico knows the difference. The yellowing pendant lights and the gray concrete give absolutely nothing away. It feels like a liminal space. Nico wouldn’t be shocked to find anything on the other side of the doors that line it unless it suddenly opened into a bustling city, but Nico can feel that they’re underground, so he doubts that. More likely, they’re in the utilities basement of some random business or warehouse. 

“We should find our way out of here,” Nico says, turning sad eyes on Will. Questioning Jason is putting him on edge. Nico wants to get out of here. Preferably to anywhere with more of their friends so they can figure out what the Hells is going on with Jason’s half-memories. “And maybe find Jason something to wear that isn’t a bloodied button down, if we can.” 

Will nods. “Yeah… I can’t imagine that’ll go over well no matter where we end up.” 

The first few doors are all random supply closets— from dirty mops and towels, to cardboard boxes, to non-perishable food. One, however, they open to shelves and shelves of black t-shirts.

“Oh, perfect!” Will reaches in, pulling a black one off the shelf closest to them. 

It unfurls and… oh. Not so perfect.

The front has the decal of a rainbow flag, a black cat logo carved into the negative space. Which isn’t a big deal… except Will spins the shirt around the peak at the back and in big bold bright pink letters are the words SF’S #1 GAY BAR.  

Oh gods. Nico darts his eyes over to Jason. Will goes red in the face. 

“I think that one is going to be too small?” Is all Jason says, looking at the shirt and then looking down at himself. 

“Uhh, right!” Will puts the shirt back and goes digging for a different shirt. Nico leans in to help. “What size do you think you are? A large?” Will asks over his shoulder. They flip through small after medium after small… and they’re all covered in the same design, same logo. They must be merchandise for… whatever SF’s number one gay bar is. The only thing Nico knows for sure is that he’s very glad to see English on the shirt. A good sign that they’re in the United States, at least (but not a guarantee). 

“An XL would be more comfortable, if they have them…” Jason stands there, hovering awkwardly. Nico can tell he wants to help, but he and Will are already taking up the entire closet doorway. 

“Found one!” Will says, pulling back from where he was elbow deep in the shelves. “You could wear it inside out or something—”

“Why would I do that?” Jason sounds genuinely confused as he easily takes the t-shirt from Will, peeling off his ruined button down right then and there. Will and Nico both look away as the older boy slips the t-shirt over his head. “That’ll work.” Jason pats the shirt down like he’s checking it for holes, and ties his old button down around his waist. The black t-shirt and black dress slacks are… an interesting combo. Hard not to pull it off when you’re over six feet tall and muscular enough to be an Olympic athlete, though. 

“Now… we were leaving?” Jason wastes no time before turning around and marching down the hallway. Will and Nico watch SF’S #1 GAY BAR walk away, turning to one another with a shrug and a laugh.

Thankfully, the exit is easy to find. There’s a door at the end of the hallway that leads up a set of wide concrete stairs. They climb them slowly, listening for any other footsteps, but none ever come. At the top, there’s a set of double doors with push bars and slatted, blurry windows barely two inches wide, where light filters through. The heavy sound of rain pounds against the metal door.

Nico wishes so deeply in that moment that Jason understood the significance of pushing the door open, and letting the air from outside filter in. City streets open up in front of them— not a person in sight in the downpour, the streetlights barely cutting through the gray. Nico pushes his hand into Will’s, squeezing once as they follow Jason out.

It’s not a warm welcome back to the surface. The second Jason’s foot crosses the threshold, thunder so loud that Nico and Will both double over to cover their ears cracks across the sky. Jason flinches back, nearly toppling their whole group over and pushing them back into the stairwell. 

“Ow— f—” Jason falls to one knee, balancing himself with a hand on the ground. He clutches at his chest. “I don’t— holy f—” Jason gasps, whips his glasses off his face to drop them gently on the ground so he can mash the palms of his hands into his closed eyes.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Will kneels next to him, hands glowing as he searches for the problem. And then Jason starts to glow. 

“Shit—” Jason grits out, and Nico can’t say he’s ever heard Jason curse before. Will and Nico watch in horror as his shoulders slump and stay there, elbows cracking as something shifts, stature curling in on itself— Jason gasps through it, barely pulling air into his lungs. His hands move up to his hair and clutch there, tight. Nico feels so useless, but he’s not sure what he could possibly do to help, so he freezes. 

“Here, give me the backpack, I’m going to get him some ambrosia,” Will says, going full medical emergency mode. The task kicks Nico back into gear. He  shucks over the backpack, watching Jason intensely as Will pulls the Ziploc bag from their First Aid kit. 

“Jason, man, lift your head just a little bit. I promise this will help—” Will breaks off a corner of the ambrosia as Jason fights to lift his head. No longer obscured by his arms, Nico gasps.

He looks… different. Like when Will looked different. But the other way around. 

Jason looks like he’s been sick for a week. His hair is shaggier, the bags under his eyes prominent, the t-shirt they grabbed for him is baggier on him than it was a few minutes ago, the strong edge of his jawline is a little softer.

Nico’s brain short-circuits trying to figure out what could have happened. The thunder, Jason’s reaction, the parallels— gods Nico wishes he had Annabeth’s brain.

Will leans in and holds the ambrosia to Jason’s mouth. As soon as Jason swallows, his eyes blow wide, pupils expanding to take over his entire iris. His cheeks go red. His gasps turn into pants like he just ran a marathon.

“What—?” Will rushes into Jason’s space, grabbing him by the chin and inspecting his eyes. He holds the back of his hand to Jason’s forehead and immediately recoils. “He’s burning up! Is he not—?” Will looks to Nico for answers, but he doesn’t have any.

“Is he not what?” Nico asks, panicked. “I don’t know what to do,” Nico admits, hovering over the both of them. Jason is shaking from head to toe, arms wrapping around himself.

“I don’t either,” Will says, fear in his eyes as he looks from Jason to Nico and back again. “He’s reacting to it like a demigod who’s taken way too much, but I barely gave him any at all! I can, uh, I can keep him stable, I think. Maybe… call Percy? Annabeth? Piper?” 

“I can’t tell Piper like this, that’s—” Nico shakes his head. “I’ll call Percy and Annabeth.” 

For once, he’s grateful for the rain. Nico digs a drachma out of his backpack, looking left and right to make sure there are no mortals around before he tosses it out of the doorway and into the downpour. 

"Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering,” Nico recites. “Show me Percy Jackson.” 

The air in front of him shimmers and warps. 

“Nico!” Percy’s voice rings out before the image even appears. He’s in pajamas, in a kitchen Nico doesn’t recognize. Must be his dorm? “Holy Hades, Nico, we’ve been trying to get an IM through to you for weeks— is that Jason?!” Percy crowds the image, only his black hair and one sea-green eye visible. He’s smiling so wide Nico is worried his face is going to split into two.

“Percy! Back up!” Annabeth’s voice. She pulls Percy back from the Iris Message and leans in to look for herself.

There’s a long, heavy pause. They all look at Annabeth, breath held.

“...What did you do?” she says, her voice low and dangerous. “Did you know about this, Percy?” 

Percy doesn’t answer. He clearly tries to look guilty, but can’t with the excitement taking over his face and the tears gather at his eyes. Nico knows the feeling.

“Not important!” Nico interrupts them. “Jason’s having memory issues.” He leaves out the again. “Something happened when we got to the surface and Will tried to give him ambrosia, but it made him sick and—”

“Slow down, Nico,” Annabeth advises, sweet, but firm. She holds her hands out like she’s trying to steady Nico through the call. “What’s the biggest issue right now?” 

“I tried to give him ambrosia, but he’s burning up from it! I only gave him a corner, I swear!” Will says from a few feet away. Jason has uncurled from himself a bit, now sitting up on his own and huffing with his hands over his eyes while Will keeps a finger on his pulse. 

Again, they all look to Annabeth for the answer. She pulls on one of her braids as she thinks.

“The only thing I can think of is that mortals have that reaction,” Annabeth says, looking with worry between the three of them. “If he hasn’t gotten any worse since he ate it, it should be fine. It’s usually an immediate thing if something goes wrong, but don’t give him any more.” Her words are steady and certain, and Nico breathes out a sigh of relief at finally having a confident answer. 

“What about the other things?” Percy asks, question almost entirely breath as he tries to contain his emotions and focus on the issues at hand.

“It’s like he remembers things, but he doesn’t really. And when we got to the surface, something happened and now he’s… Well, here, let me show you.” Nico turns to Will and Jason. “Jason, are you okay?” 

Jason looks up, and it really is jarring to see him not in peak condition. Nico has the overwhelming urge to get him a couple of McDonald’s burgers, stat, and suddenly understands the joy Will feels when Nico eats. “Huh? Uh, yeah—” Jason swallows, thick. “Throat hurts.”

“Oh, what the fu—” Percy tries to lean in again, but this time Annabeth is ready and has a hand on his arm, keeping him from blocking her ability to see them, too. They both look at Jason expectantly, but he doesn’t do anything. Just goes back to rocking himself and breathing heavily.

Annabeth goes stiff as a board.

“Can he not see us?” Annabeth asks, each word measured and divided very carefully.

Nico… hadn’t even thought about that. Everyone turns to look at Jason.

“Jason!” Percy yells through the IM, but Jason doesn’t even flinch. The smile drops from his face. 

“Oh, no,” Will mutters at the same time that Annabeth cusses under her breath. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Jason looks at Will, wrapping his now slightly-skinnier arms around his knees. 

“Sorry, I uh—” Will, still a terrible liar (nothing has changed), pitters his sentence off and says nothing. 

“All we know is that he remembers us.” Nico turns back to the Iris Message, trying to give Annabeth as much information as he can while he can see her gears turning. “And he remembers Piper, but he doesn’t know he was dead. He recalled his last mission with Apollo as going on the boat with Piper and her friends,” Nico quotes. 

“Does he always talk to himself?” He hears Jason ask Will behind him.

“Yeah,” Will chuckles back, not having to lie this time. Nico shoots him a quick glare over his shoulder. 

“Nico… I may be wrong. I hope to the gods that I’m wrong. But… it sounds like Jason can’t see through the Mist. And that he can’t have ambrosia. And he can’t use his powers…” Annabeth pulls at the sleeves of her sweater. Her gray eyes dart back and forth. “It sounds like he’s… not a demigod.”

Bile rises in Nico’s throat. 

“That— That can’t be possible, right! I brought Hazel back and she came back as a demigod just fine! I don’t understand—” Nico chokes on his words in his panic. He turns around, away from Annabeth’s sharp stare, to find Will looking at him with a grimace and Jason full on staring with wide-eyed confusion. 

“Nico, where are you guys right now? You’ve been gone for over two weeks. There’s been an uptick in monster activity since you’ve been gone, and Chiron keeps Iris Messaging us trying to convince us to come back to camp, but won’t tell us why. If Jason is… mortal, we need to get him somewhere safe, fast. We can worry about the rest later.” Two-weeks?! Nico and Will make their thousandth instance of worried eye-contact of the day. If Nico were to guess, he would have said three days, at most. Elysium must have really messed with their sense of time…

“I don’t know where we are,” Nico mutters, looking out to the city beyond the doors.

“We’re in San Francisco,” Jason says, voice confident. 

SF’S #1 GAY BAR. SF. San Francisco. Of course. 

“How do you know that?” Will asks Jason. 

“I grew up here,” he says, slow, hesitating, almost in a question. Like he’s waiting for Nico or Will to tell him he didn’t. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it rain like this here,” he adds, mostly to himself, staring out the door in wonder at the downpour outside. 

“You’re right here! Awesome! We can meet up with you and—” Percy starts, but Annabeth holds her hand up. 

“We should go tell Frank and Hazel, and have them tell people to be on the lookout for Nico, Will, and Jason to let them into camp. If you and I go out there to get them, we’re definitely going to attract monsters.” The intense look Annabeth gives Percy has him backing down immediately. 

“Right…” he says, looking a little defeated. Nico’s heart clenches for him. He probably just wants to see Jason (and have Jason see him back).

“If we get attacked, what are we going to do about Jason?” Will mutters, careful to look at Nico and not the Iris Message.

“Attacked? Attacked by who? Why would we get attacked?” Jason asks. No one answers him.

“If we get attacked while Jason’s like this, we’re—” Nico wants to say fucked. Doomed. Royally screwed. But he can’t bring himself to. He shakes his head. “We need to get Jason fixed, and then we can go to Camp Jupiter.” 

“How are we going to do that?” Will asks.

“I need to call my sister.”

They end their call with Percy and Annabeth, Percy stealing longing glances at Jason as they say their goodbyes. 

This time, Nico takes their baggy of drachmas and walks out into the rain, around the side of the building. He might catch a cold from this, but he needs to be able to talk to Hazel without Jason listening in. 

“Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Hazel Levesque.” He tosses two coins into the rain this time, a tip. Or maybe a bribe. Nico is really hoping Iris isn’t letting Zeus watch any of these calls. A chill crawls up his spine and Nico suddenly feels like he shouldn’t be standing out in the rain.

The extra coin must do something, because the call goes through. His sister’s kind, round face and copious amounts of curls take up the entire frame.

“Nico!” She cries, a big smile on her face. “How are you? How was Piper’s? I’m so sorry we couldn’t join you all, stupid praetor job—” She rambles just as much as Nico does. Maybe it’s a child of Hades thing. 

Seeing her face lifts a weight from Nico’s heart that he didn’t know was there. He can’t help but smile as she leans in and says, “Did you need something? What’s up? Why are you standing in the rain?! You’re going to get sick!”

Nico chuckles, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes. “Long story. Can I… ask you a question? I can’t tell you everything, but I promise Percy and Annabeth will fill you in soon.” 

Her face goes warm with concern, eyes shining and eyebrows pinching together. She scoots back from the call, situating herself in the highback chair that Nico recognizes as her office. “Of course,” she says, voice honey sweet.

Nico takes a deep breath.

“If you needed a mortal to be able to see through the Mist, how could you do that?” 

Hazel blinks a few times. Worry crosses her face first, and then intrigue, and then she’s deep in thought. “Long term?” She asks.

Nico nods.

She taps a small finger against her chin.

“I think that only gods can grant the ability to see through the Mist permanently. I can part it for people who can’t see, but only for a little while. And usually their memories rewrite themselves later when their ability to see through the Mist is gone. Like what happens to Piper’s dad. Although, as you know, some mortals are predisposed to seeing through it, and once they encounter something, the illusion shatters. Like Rachel Elizabeth Dare.” 

Nico keeps nodding, tucking his hands into his pockets to keep them warm from the rain. The cold metal of his sun coin brushes against his knuckles. Nico wonders if Apollo would do it. Could it be that easy? Select a random god who likes them and pray, hope that they’ll come to Jason’s aide? 

The problem is, Nico thinks Apollo would. Apollo might feel like he owes it to Jason, and if what Annabeth said is true and monsters are running amuck and Chiron is fretting over something… that line in their prophecy about Olympus dividing might already be happening. Better to not drive the wedge deeper by calling on Apollo for anything. 

But what god or goddess could Nico ask, then? One that Zeus (or Jupiter, for that matter) couldn’t point fingers at and blame? Someone who knows Jason well enough to help them, but operates outside of Zeus’ ruling thumb?

Nico thinks about their prophecy again. 

Guardian of Rome, love hard won.

“Hazel, what can you tell me about Lupa?”

Chapter Text

When Nico returned to their little group sopping wet and announced they were heading to Sonoma Valley, Jason looked at him like he’d suggested they walk for seventeen hours straight.

Which is, apparently, how long of a walk it would be. 

Seventeen hours. Nope. No thanks. Nico’s boots have been plenty broken-in at this point. They don’t need to see seventeen hours of hiking across California on top of that.

So, instead, he called his trusty chauffeur Julius-Albert (much to Jason’s confusion) and they piled into the back of the limousine for a nice, short, hour and a half drive.

Sitting in the limousine with the heat on and the lights low, slowly drying out and hopefully not catching a cold — Nico takes back every criticism he ever had of this present from his father. A full day of walking to the Wolf House in the storm would have been cruel and unusual punishment after everything they’ve already been through. 

Rain slams against the car windows, pouring down more water over California than it has seen in decades. A heavy fog sits over the ground— so thick Nico can’t see where they’re going. 

Nico would be more worried about it if Julius-Albert wasn’t made of magic and didn’t have working eyes to begin with. Nico had no idea how he sees to drive, and he won’t be asking.

Silence drags on, only interrupted by bursts of thunder. The hot air blasting through the air vents leaves goosebumps on Nico’s skin and a fuzzy ringing noise in his ears. Nico would play music, but he doesn’t know any of the radio stations here, and he has no idea how to connect the magic iPod to the speakers like Piper did with her phone. The concept of Bluetooth eludes him. Tiny unseeable particles in the air that transfer data that makes sound? Yeah, right. And unicorns are real. 

“Why do we need to go to Sonoma Valley, again?” Jason breaks the silence, eyes unmoving from the windshield. It’s useless. Any headlights in front of them are blurred into the gray. 

“I never told you why,” Nico says, barely a murmur. He stares at the table. Looking at Jason hurts— having him back, but not really having him back. And now he doesn’t even look the same. Any time Nico sees his grown out hair, his lean arms, and his cloudy eyes— it reminds him all over again that this might be Jason, but it’s not the Jason he remembers. 

“Oh.” He doesn’t ask Nico to elaborate. 

The defeat in his voice prompts Nico to risk a glance in his direction. Jason taps the top of the center table, a consistent back and forth, back and forth with all of his fingers. They twitch around funny, and Nico realizes he’s making the motion one would make to pass a coin between their fingers. Something Nico always wished he could do but was never able to master, no matter how many hours he dedicated to it as a homeless teenager. Nico was convinced it would make him the coolest, most hardcore kid to ever exist if he could.

The weird thing is… Nico doesn’t think he’s ever seen Jason actually do it before. They spent a lot of time in the same room on the Argo II, and even more time together at Camp Half-Blood, and yet Nico has never seen him make that motion with his fingers or actually pass a coin between them. If he had, he would have asked the other boy to show him how (or at least thought about it quietly for weeks and never asked).

Nico reaches into the pockets of his black cargo pants, thumbs at the coin there. He glances at Will, who is lying with his head tilted back and his eyes closed to stave off the carsickness.

Without Will’s eyes on them, Nico takes the coin out of his pocket and slides it across the table, skull side up. Jason’s gaze flicks down to it. They both stare at the coin. Slowly, Jason scoots his twitching hand over the coin, plucking it off of the table. He looks at each side carefully, eyes darting between Nico and Will as he does— like he’s trying to put pieces of a puzzle together. Finally, he passes it smoothly between his square, pale fingers. Back and forth, back and forth. Automatic and instinctual. Jason rests his head on his other hand, still staring out at the road. For a moment, his eyes slide over to Nico and he looks grateful— the furrow in his brow loosened. 

Nico would be very jealous of how mysterious and brooding Jason looks, twirling the coin around and gazing dramatically out of the window — except that the rainbow patterned SF’s #1 Gay Bar t-shirt is definitely shattering the illusion. 

“Where did you learn to do that?” Nico asks, knowing there’s a fifty-fifty shot he gets a real answer. He tells himself it’s for research. It’s important to know where the Mist stops and Jason starts if this Lupa thing doesn’t work and Jason is stuck like this for the foreseeable future.

To Nico’s surprise, Jason perks up at the question. Nico can only compare it to the way Cerberus looks at him when he shows up after a particularly slow, sad day. Waiting to find out if Nico’s going to come play fetch with him or not. Nico holds back a laugh at the mental image. 

He’s compared Will to an orange cat, before. And if Will is an orange cat, Jason is definitely a golden retriever.  

“Do what?” Will asks before Jason can answer, cracking one eye open to peer down at them. 

“The coin thing,” Nico gestures at Jason.

“I taught myself,” Jason says, a small smile tugging at his scar. “I was really little. I had some coin that meant a lot to me and a lot of time on my hands. And not a lot of hobbies.” Jason laughs to himself. That, Nico can understand. Picking up hobbies is pretty difficult as a young demigod. You’re usually busy with other things. Like monsters, and wars. Did Nico mention monsters? 

Even worse, Jason was part of the legion. They probably had, like, twenty minutes of scheduled free time. Nico might whine about Camp Half-Blood being restrictive, but it’s nothing compared to Camp Jupiter. No one at Camp Half-Blood actually cares if you decide you don’t want to attend your rotation or if you want a change of pace. Or if, a completely random example, your really nice and cute doctor boyfriend wants you to have the same schedule as him and you’re the only member of your cabin so you just lie and go wherever you want, whenever you want.

If Camp Half-Blood is a summer camp for troubled teenagers, Camp Jupiter is quite literally a children’s military camp. 

Hazel and Frank are working on it, though. 

“I tried to teach myself how when I was younger and I couldn’t,” Nico replies, watching as Jason glides the coin over his knuckles once more. 

“I’m sure Jason would teach you,” Will laughs, closing his eyes again and thunking his head back against the window. The movement makes him green in the face.

“Yeah, of course.” Jason gives Nico a real, genuine Jason smile. It’s small, barely a hint of teeth and eyes on the sad side. His nose scrunches slightly and his eyes narrow. Percy always poked fun at him for how dorky of a smile it was, not at all like the suave son of Jupiter he was meant to be, but Nico thinks it suits him perfectly. It’s soft and emotional— reserved, in a way that Nico deeply appreciates. 

As Nico watches Jason, trying to get used to the new sight of him, the limousine tilts upwards slightly. Which isn’t that concerning in itself, given that California is full of mountains and hills, but the peripheral feeling of ground beneath them leaves Nico’s magical senses and his stomach lurches. There’s nothing below them but open air and water — a bridge. It’s Nico’s turn to squeeze his eyes shut. His skin goes cold and clammy. 

“Not a fan of heights?” Jason asks, the usual combination of concern and humor in his voice, giving Nico the choice to joke about it or talk about it. 

“More like heights aren’t a fan of me,” Nico huffs, reaching blindly for Will’s hand. They meet, and warm fingers run across his knuckles. His powers unhelpfully tell him the ground is getting further and further away. Surely there was a way to get there that didn’t involve taking a bridge? 

“The Golden Gate Bridge is pretty flat all the way across,” Jason says, deep voice barely audible over the rain. “So we won’t be going any higher.”

That’s a comfort, at least. Nico lets out a steadying breath, but doesn’t open his eyes.

“I’ve never seen the Golden Gate Bridge before,” Will says, and Nico both hears and feels him shift to get a look out of the window. The leather seats creak beneath the movement. Nico blindly reaches out and taps him on the shoulder, trying to warn him without words that he’s going to make himself sick doing that. Will ignores it. “Can’t really see it now either, I guess. With all this fog and rain. At least I can say I’ve been!”

“Exciting,” Nico jokes, voice flat. Will laughs at him, poking him in the side. 

“It is exciting,” Will says back, resettling into his seat. 

“When did this start?” Jason asks, and Nico has to force his eyes open to see what he’s referring to. He’s staring directly at Nico and Will’s connected hands. His expression is bright, lips twitching as he tries to keep a smile off of his face.

…Nico keeps forgetting Jason died before he could find out Nico and Will were dating.

They both blush, and Nico tries to pull his hand out of Will’s on instinct, but his boyfriend holds fast. 

“Recently,” Nico says, looking off to the side. He brings his other hand up to hide his face.

“Not that recently! It’s been, like, over half a year now!” Will grabs Nico’s hand and pulls it off of his face, dropping a kiss on the cheek Nico was covering, leaving him even more red faced.  Whatever warped memories Jason has about Nico and Will makes him smile, eyebrows raised. He’s giving Nico that “It’s okay to be happy, you know?” look— mouth is pinched closed, trying to hold back laughter as Nico fights off his boyfriend’s attempt to smother him with affection in front of Jason.

It distracts Nico until they make it to the other side. He feels the ground beneath him again and lets out a sigh of relief. 

“Any other bridges on this drive I should know about?” Nico lifts an eyebrow at Jason, feeling far more relaxed. 

The other boy shakes his head, the tiniest bit of a smile still in his eyes.

“None that I remember…” Jason looks down at the mahogany table between them, coin still gliding over and under his knuckles. Sun, skull, sun, skull. Nico watches it change, glinting in the low light of the limo’s cabin. Jason flips it, pressing it to the back of his hand. It lands on skull. 

“So, um, can I ask you guys something?” Jason looks up, blue eyes sharper and clearer than they were a second ago. The lighting casts weird shadows over his face, making his strong jaw and brows look sunken in. 

“Of course!” Will answers for them. His attack on Nico definitely resulted in some extra car-sickness. His grin shakes at the edges and his cheeks are flushed in a sickly way. Nico smiles. That’s what he gets!

Jason opens his mouth, stopping on the breath in. His still-broad shoulders deflate as he breathes out, no question leaving his mouth. 

“I’m sorry, I—“ Jason won’t look either of them in the eye.

“That’s okay—“ Will says as the same time Nico rushes to say “You don’t have to apologize!”

He glances up at the two of them, a sad glint in his eyes.

”There’s clearly stuff going on that you two can’t tell me. And that’s fine, but…” There’s a long pause. Jason looks Nico directly in the eyes, gaze begging for the truth. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No! No, Jason—” Nico’s voice cracks as he looks at the other boy. His best friend. His best friend that he brought back to life and should be ecstatic about. “I’m sorry that we can’t tell you more, it’s… you won’t get it. No matter how much we want you to get it. The most I can say is we need to get you to Sonoma Valley because there’s someone there who can help you.”

Nico has to look away. He can’t stand to watch the way the older boy’s shoulders drop and the way he forces himself to nod. Can’t watch as Jason picks his heart up off the floor and shakes it off, settling back into his chair with a sigh. 

“Okay. Alright—” Jason looks away, too. “As long as I didn’t do anything…” He taps anxiously at the table. Nico is quick to shake his head. 

“Definitely not. The opposite, actually. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s what other people did wrong to you that we’re trying to fix.” Nico leans into Jason’s line of sight, forcing eye contact so he can try and communicate with his face that he’s being honest. It must come across more intimidating than he meant it to, or maybe Jason is suddenly also carsick, because his face drains of color and he looks away, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. 

“If you say so,” Jason mutters, going back to twirling the coin and staring out of the windshield. 

“I do say so.”

And that settles it. They ride the rest of the way in silence.

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

“This is not what I was picturing.” Will looks around as they pick their way through the tall grass, wet mud squelching under their shoes. 

Julius-Albert kicked them out well before the roads ended, for some reason. The Wolf House is open to the public, so there are roads all the way up to the entrance, but Nico imagines it’s some sort of sacred land or Roman territory— neither of which are things Julius-Albert likes to dabble in. There are, unfortunately, limits to his undead chauffeur. Life can’t be too easy for Nico. 

“What were you picturing?” Nico raises an eyebrow at his boyfriend. He’ll admit, it’s not what Nico was expecting either— it’s clearly a monument or memorial meant for tourists. Marked paths, fenced off structures, the occasional pamphlet littering the ground. How do Lupa and her pack train demigods here and manage to hide it from the world? 

“Something scarier? Less mortal? More dog hair?” Will laughs. “I’m not sure, but with a name like the Wolf House, I definitely wasn’t picturing an outdoor museum.” 

An outdoor museum is a great way to describe it. All there is around them are the cobblestone bones of a very large burnt down house, holes in the walls for windows and doorways and no roof. well marked paths set along the hill. They’re slippery looking and wooden, raised a few inches above the ground. Naturally, they avoid walking along it, he and Will agreeing it’s a bad idea to go walking straight through the center in case someone or something is waiting for them. Signs with diagrams and paragraphs on paragraphs of text line the path, barely visible through the downpour. Other than that, the only thing around them is dense forest. 

This is where Jason’s mom left him as a baby? This is where Jason grew up? 

Nico needs Jason to get his memories sorted, because Nico has questions. And complaints. And comments. And concerns. 

Speaking of Jason, he stares out at the charred structures they pass, lined with soggy gardens and mossy stone fences, with an unrelenting crease in his brow. Nico can see him fighting the Mist to remember how he knows this place, and the Mist is fighting back. He looks even smaller with the rain— wet clothes sticking to his skin and emphasizing his now slightly smaller frame.

Every time his eyes clear slightly, and Jason looks around with renewed vigor, he twitches like a live wire and resets. His eyes glaze over, his expression goes slack, and he forgets all over again. Jason plots his way over to a random wall, staring out of the square, jagged where a window would have gone. They stop just behind him in the center of what was once a room, now open to the air. The grass under their feet comes up above Nico’s calf, the air muggy and disgusting and thick with the smell of dirt. With each passing second, Nico sinks a little more into the mud. (This is one way to fast track getting his boots to look well-loved.)

Will and Nico both watch, soaking in the rain, as Jason stares out at the forest. And stares. And stares. 

“Jack London built this place in the 1910s. It was meant to be a luxury home for him and Charmian Kittredge, but it burnt down before they could move in. They were both authors.” Jason drags a hand along burnt stone. “Weird that it’s empty. I remember it being busier.”

“It’s pouring rain. I don’t think anyone wants to be outside while California gets more rain than it has in the last collective century.” Nico wipes the water off of his own face for emphasis, immediately replaced by new rain. His vision is framed with black from the ends of his bangs hitting the tops of his eyes, but he doesn’t bother to push them out of his face— his hair is a lost cause.

“I like the rain,” Jason mutters to himself, looking up at the sky. It’s all one black blob, dark outside despite the midafternoon hour. The storm hangs over them like an impending message of doom.

“I don’t,” Will huffs a laugh. It might just be the lack of sunlight, but Will is looking worse for wear. His face lacks its usual warmth and his golden curls are brown and matted to his forehead. It makes him look a little bit like a wet mop. A cute wet mop, though. 

Jason doesn’t look much better. He’s shivering from the cold, made worse by the rain seeping into their bones. His own grown out hair is stuck to his face in thin lines. And this trek can’t be comfortable in dress shoes.

Nico assumes he looks like a mangled, soaking wet rat.  

What a group they make. Any monsters they come across would probably laugh themselves to dust at the sight of them.

Nico looks around. They need to figure out how they’re going to get Lupa’s attention quickly, and preferably before said monsters arrive. 

“Let’s get out of the rain,” Nico says.

To one side of the structure, there's a single, thin overhang of shingles that somehow survived the fire. They shuffle over to the awning and huddle close. Jason has to duck down to fit underneath it. He may be less god-like, but he certainly didn’t get any shorter. 

Which leaves Nico sandwiched between his boyfriend and best friend. It would be anxiety inducing and embarrassing if they weren’t all so cold and tired.

Jason pulls his glasses off of his face to wipe the water droplets away and Nico’s curiosity gets the better of him.

“So, you recognize this place, then?” Nico asks, having to tilt his head all the way back to look Jason in the eyes. 

“Yeah,” Jason looks wistfully back at the main pathway, blurred by the storm, posture more relaxed than it’s been since they brought him back.

“What do you remember?” Will leans around Nico to ask.

“I used to come here all the time with my Aunt. I remember always walking away from her and wandering around by myself. I would spend hours rereading all the signs by myself until she found me.” Jason drags his gaze across the wooden walkway and the big signs along its edges. He points to one that’s off to the side, Nico having to squint through the fog to see it. “That one was my favorite. It has a blueprint of the building and talks about how it was built.”

“That’s… really cool, actually,” Will says, and Jason lights up when neither of them tell him his memories are wrong. 

“It’s a little boring, but I liked it.” He looks away sheepishly. 

“That’s not boring,” Nico says, feeling like this conversation is all backwards. Usually it’s Jason telling him that his interests are fun and worth talking about. He let Nico teach him Mythomagic for gods’ sake while he was still at Camp Half-Blood. Nico thinks of all of Jason’s shrine planning, all of his sketches and designs and layouts and all of the little details. He thinks of the sketchbook sitting in Percy and Annabeth’s apartment right now with Jason’s ideas for New Greece, that drawing of Percy sitting on the front steps with crumbs of muffin around his mouth. How could Jason think that all of that is boring to them? Is that why Nico had never seen any of his art before?

There’s a howl in the distance. 

All three of them turn to look at the direction it came from. 

“Wolves?” Will asks, voice dropped to a whisper. 

“I hope so,” Nico mutters, leaning out from under the awning. He takes a tiny step forward, foot slipping slightly in the mud and both Will and Jason reach forward to catch him. Feels a little bit like an overreaction. “I’m good, guys,” he turns around to say, shooting them a flat look somewhere between a glare and a roll of his eyes. 

They both let go, holding their hands in the air.

"Right, sorry,” Jason grimaces. 

“Listen, neither of us are Percy. So if you slip and fall and get covered in mud, you’re stuck like that until we can find a shower and get you a clean change of clothes,” Will laughs. Nico scoffs at his boyfriend. 

“Percy…” Jason repeats, squinting. 

Nico opens his mouth to ask Jason if he remembers Percy, but the words don’t get the chance to leave his mouth. There’s another howl, much closer this time. And another one. And then a third. 

“Should we… move?” Will asks. 

“I mean… Lupa’s probably with them, right?” Nico steps out further, into the rain.

“My aunt?” Jason asks, sounding very confused. Nico and Will both turn to look at him, wide eyed.

“Uh… yeah. Your aunt,” Nico lies before Will can say something and fumble. When will his boyfriend learn that being the son of the god of truth means he should keep his mouth shut when they have lies to uphold?

“Does she… still come here?” Jason tries to push, but there’s more howling now. Close enough that Nico can hear the thump of paws against the ground in the distance, even with the sound of the pouring rain. 

“Hide!” Nico hisses at Will, pushing him and Jason towards the doorway to the right of them. If these aren’t Lupa’s wolves, for some reason, Jason needs to be hidden and away from the fight. Will gets the hint, pulling the other boy along with him around the useless archway in the ruins, hiding behind the cobblestone wall Nico puts his back to for defense. 

And thank the gods he did because suddenly, he’s surrounded. Their covered safe haven has become a corner— trapped. Dozens of red coated wolves sulk out of the forest. The terrain is a different height in every direction, but the brush is thick underfoot, leaving the wolves barely visible above the grass. 

Even though this is exactly what Nico wanted, he’s suddenly very, very afraid. 

The last time he encountered a wolf of any kind was when he fought Lycaon. Which did not go well for him. He still has the scars on his arm to prove it. Still prefers sleeping on his left side.

Nico shuffles further out into the downpour, putting a hand on the hilt of his sword, but not removing it from its sheath. Truthfully, his only shot is to talk his way out of this. Even if he had Will and a fully functional demigod Jason by his side, they would have a tough time taking down this many wolves. 

Nico takes a deep breath in, squares his shoulders, and puffs out his chest. He looks down at the sea of canines, and prays to Lupa that this is really her pack. 

“I want an audience with Lupa,” Nico says with all the confidence he can muster. His eyes try to follow each one of the almost fifty wolves as they slink back and forth, crossing and uncrossing paths and slowly closing in on Nico and, unknowingly, his friends. 

A few of them snarl, one howls. They don’t stop their advance.

Three human figures step out from the group. They’re all around thirteen, and glare at their visitor with steely eyes. The wolves move around them. Waiting, watching.

“What makes you think you can request an audience with Lupa?” The girl at the front asks, arms crossed over her chest. Her snarl is practiced, her posture perfectly straight. The way she holds herself and the way she speaks remind Nico of Reyna, but that’s where the comparisons end. Her skin is concerningly pale in a porcelain, delicate way that Nico’s never was. Her cheeks are still rosy, bright and full of life. It’s a startling contrast against her silken black hair, even darker with the rain, and her narrow, solid black eyes. And she’s very, very short. A whole foot or more smaller than Nico, but she carries herself as if she were six feet tall.

The other two demigods are a lanky boy with tan skin and thin wild brown hair, and a taller, stockier girl with freckles and very long, blonde hair that sticks all over her face no matter how many times she tries to casually pull it away. They’re both far less confident than their leader— cowering behind her and looking warily at Nico.

These must be Lupa’s trainees. Demigods. Roman demigods.

“I have something she’d want to see,” Nico insists, drawing himself up into a more intimidating stance. Nico has learned in his time with the Romans that it’s all a game of posturing. If he carries himself like he’s important, they’ll make him important. 

He can talk his way through this. Nico can do this. He might have a fully negative charisma score, but that won't stop him from trying.

“What could you possibly have that she’d want?” The girl shoots back, placing her hands on her hips. 

“I’ve brought her Jason Grace.” 

The name means nothing to her. The girl simply raises a thin eyebrow at Nico, no idea who Jason even is because she hasn’t made it to Camp Jupiter yet. But the words weren’t for her. They were for the wolves.

And it works. All of the wolves stop moving. They stand perfectly still, every silver eye trained on Nico. He has their full attention. Perfect.

A single wolf stalks forward, and at first, Nico is hopeful it’s Lupa. But then it stops in front of the Roman demigods and lowers its head, peering up at the three, ears flat against its skull.

It almost looks… sad.  

“And what do you expect me to do about it?” The girl asks. Nico opens his mouth to respond, but realizes she’s looking down at the wolf by her feet, not him. “She’s not here right now.”

The wolf whines, high pitched and pitiful, nudging its nose forward. It huffs and whimpers, tamping its feet impatiently as it seems to plead with the young girl. She stares back, cold and unyielding.

“No—” She doesn’t get to finish the words.

“What did we talk about, Kai?” Another wolf separates itself from the group. The rest of the pack stands back at her presence, heads tilting down. 

Nico can’t believe he thought for even a second that the other wolf could have been her. Because this wolf is, without a single doubt, Lupa. 

As she stalks forward, she grows in size until she’s double the height of a Great Dane, shoulder blades reaching Nico’s neck. She lifts her head slowly until she’s taller than the young girl Nico now knows is Kai. She’s massive. Her rust-red fur matches the rest of her pack, indistinguishable except for her sheer size. Her eyes are the same gray as the fog settling low over the grass, concealing the mass of wolves around them even more. 

As if startled by her presence, the rain starts to slow.

Nico’s heart pounds in his chest, equally overwhelmed with reverence and fear.

“I-I’m sorry—” Kai bows her head, tilting her neck in a wolves’ sign of submission. The other two demigods look about ready to soil their pants. Apollo would be proud.

“I did not ask you to apologize. I asked you what we talked about.” Lupa’s voice is firm, but not unkind. She speaks evenly, confident enough to keep her voice quiet and still be heard loud and clear. 

“That— that it’s not my job to make decisions for the pack. It’s to listen to the pack and figure out how to do what they need done,” Kai repeats. She keeps her black eyes trained on the ground, wet hair hanging over her face in a blanket of shame.

“Correct.” Lupa puts herself between Kai and the wolf before her, dwarfing the girl from Nico’s view. She bows her head down to the much smaller wolf and sticks her nose into the fur of its neck. They make noises back and forth that Nico doesn’t understand, but eventually the other wolf scampers away, back to the rest of the pack.

She raises her head into the air and takes a tentative sniff, staring down her snout at Nico. Her attention finally on him. Now that he has it, Nico’s not sure he wants it.  

“You reek of death,” Lupa says, lowering her head again to look Nico in the eyes. She pulls her lips into a real snarl, the kind Kai was trying to imitate, and a chill runs down Nico’s spine. The size of her teeth make Mrs. O’Leary’s look like they belong to a toy poodle. “I have heard of you. A Greek demigod, posing as a Roman among my ranks at Camp Jupiter far before Percy Jackson arrived on my doorstep. And now, you claim to have brought me Jason Grace?” She takes a step forward, the end of her nose almost touching Nico’s face. “There better be a good reason for your lie, little Hades, or there will be grave consequences. Jason Grace is dead.”   

“Jason was dead,” Nico corrects, unable to look her in the eyes as he says it. There’s an unsteadiness to the goddess’ breathing that doesn’t go unnoticed. Shaky, stuttering on the intake and rushing out, as though she’s trying not to cry. Nico knows the feeling all too well. “I resurrected him because it wasn’t his time yet. But something went wrong, so I’ve brought him to you. I need help.” 

Nico does his best to be polite, but his body is slowly turning to pins and needles as the fight or flight reflex kicks in. He’s not sure how much longer he can stand here and be cordial with an entire army of wolves surrounding him, face to face with Lupa, the mother of Rome herself. 

“I do not see him with you,” Lupa counters, humoring Nico by looking left and right, as if there could be someone there that she did not notice before. 

Nico turns to the nearby doorway, shouting, “Will?” Blond hair and freckles peek around the corner immediately. 

As soon as Will catches sight of Lupa, the color drains from his face. 

“They are here, with you? I could not smell them,” Lupa’s voice is incredulous, giving Nico a strange look. Looks like he’s found another strange perk to his weird death aura.

“Will, bring Jason out,” Nico says, eyes not moving from Will’s face so he can avoid answering Lupa. Will gulps, ducking back behind the doorway, and then drags Jason out behind him. 

Jason does not look happy about it. But, other than the terror behind his eyes, Jason is holding himself together quite well. He’s standing tall, shoulders squared and jaw set, ready for a fight. Being a mortal couldn’t take his instincts from him, at least. 

Lupa watches, unblinking, as Will pulls an unwilling Jason to the center of the open area left by the surrounding pack. Her eyes soften the longer she looks at Jason, even as her posture remains the same. There’s a cacophony of whines and barks as Jason takes center stage. Nico can assume it’s only the presence of Lupa keeping the pack from rushing forward and drowning Jason in a literal dogpile. 

Lupa draws closer, no one moving an inch as she slinks around Nico to get a better look.

“So it is true,” she whispers, leaning in to push at Jason with her snout. She sniffs at him from shoulder to hip, poking and prodding. Jason’s eyes look about ready to bulge out of his head. Does he see her for what she really is? Normal sized wolf or not, Jason is rightfully terrified. When she pulls back, teeth bared, a chill travels down Nico’s spine. He can barely read human expressions, let alone wolf expressions, so he can’t tell what Lupa is feeling as looks over her shoulder at Nico, gray eyes piercing

“Something went wrong?! He is mortal!” She howls, her entire pack hunching forward, preparing for a fight. Nico can’t control his reflexes, flinching when she flashes her sharp canines. 

Well, that confirms that. He wonders how she knows. Can she tell because she’s a goddess, or because she can smell it?

He doesn’t get a chance to dwell, because she growls deep in her throat at Nico, and the pack howls back. Nico's blood goes ice cold in his veins. He’s sure he is about to get ripped to shreds, hand shaking against his sword handle, but Lupa turns around and stalks a few feet away. Nico can’t help but breathe an audible sigh of relief.

Such a looming goddess— her paws leave footprints larger than Nico’s head in the muddy ground, squishing all of the grass down around her.

“Jason sacrificed himself for Rome, like all of my pups are trained to do. For the better of their pack.” Lupa stops at the edge of her pack, standing, hunched, next to her current demigods in training. “Give me one good reason why I should not teach you a permanent lesson about meddling in the destiny of one of my pups.” Lupa looks away as she says it, no longer hitting Nico with the full force of her godly powers— making him suspect that she doesn’t even fully believe her own words. 

That, Nico can work with. 

“Because I am not the first person to meddle with Jason’s destiny. But I am the first person to do it with what Jason wants in mind.” Nico keeps his eyes on Lupa, walking over and taking his place by Will’s side. She finally looks over at him, tilting her head to the left. Waiting to hear more. Out of the corner of his eye, Nico can see Jason looking at him with a confused expression, eyebrows pulled together and mouth slightly parted. 

“Hera stole Jason from Camp Jupiter and filled his and Piper’s heads with false memories of a relationship they never had. She was the first person to meddle with Jason’s destiny. She wanted to choose his life path, his partner, his story.” Every breath Nico takes comes out unsteady, only slightly comforted by Will’s hand coming to rest on his shoulder. 

“And,” Will interjects, “Piper doesn’t even like men. Hera didn’t just mess with Jason’s life, she messed with Piper’s. And Percy’s. And all of their friends and family.” 

Nico brings his hand up to lace with Will’s fingers, squeezing their hands together by his neck.

“And Jason remained Juno’s champion anyways. Even when Piper broke up with him, and they got the prophecy that one of them had to die, he chose to sacrifice himself. Even though—” Nico has to stop for a moment. The letters he knows are safely tucked in his cabin are seared into his mind. Nico’s throat tightens, his eyes water, hidden by the fact that he’s still drenched with rain. “Even though he really didn’t want to die.” 

Lupa’s silver eyes sear into Nico’s. Slowly, the harsh tilt of her face lowers.

“What—?” Jason starts, looking between Nico and the wolf. He doesn't think Jason can even hear the goddess. Does he think Nico is talking to himself? Lupa cuts him off.

“How do you know about that?” Lupa growls, head lowered. She looks at Nico through the slits of her eyes.

“Know about what?” Will is the one who responds, taking Lupa’s actions as aggressive and positioning himself to step in front of Nico if he has to. 

“That Jason—” Lupa stops herself, growling louder this time. She whips her head around to the demigods standing beside her. “Take the pack to the main area,” she instructs Kai, leaving no room for question.

“But—!” Kai immediately tries to question, and Lupa fixes her with a fiery look. Kai’s mouth snaps shut, and she turns to the rest of the pack, whistling sharply. 

The four of them watch as the pack runs out of the area, into a different section of the ruins. 

“Apologies, she is still learning.” Lupa shakes her head, watching them run off until the last wolf is out of sight. It takes a while, many of the wolves stopping to look back at Jason or whimpering and not wanting to leave. Finally, the last rust-colored tail disappears into the brush. “Jason was just as hard-headed when he stayed here, but in a very different way. He questioned everything I told him. Always wanted to do what would make the pack happiest, no matter if I advised against it.” Lupa looks back at Jason, the sadness creeping back into her gaze. “But that is what makes a good leader. If they always did what I wanted them to do without question, that would be a follower, not a leader.” 

Lupa huffs out a sigh as human as a wolf can make, padding over to their little group. Jason goes to take a step back, but Nico grabs his arm and holds him there.

“How do you know he did not want to die?” Lupa asks again. “As far as I was aware, that was not something you demigods knew about Jason’s death. Not even Apollo knew.”

Not what Nico was expecting her to say. How did the gods know?

“I…” Nico glances at Will, who is looking just as concerned and confused as Jason, at this point. There’s no way to explain this without admitting to the things he did that he didn’t even tell Will, so Nico takes a deep breath, puts on his big boy pants, and admits to it all. “When Will and I went to visit Piper after Jason’s death, she gave us a bunch of Jason’s old stuff. And in that stuff, Annabeth found letters addressed to me. From Jason.” Nico looks at Will as he talks, avoiding Lupa’s gaze and worried Will is going to be upset with him from withholding information. He doesn’t get upset, though— just holds that same, concerned expression as he clutches Nico’s hand. 

“They, um,” Nico dares to turn and look at Jason, who is staring off into the distance. His eyes are clear— the bright Summer blue Nico remembers. “They were from before any of the fighting, but the Triumvirate was messing with our communications, so they never got sent to me. Jason wrote about how he was trying to find some way around the prophecy him and Piper received, but couldn’t. And about how he couldn’t let Piper die, but he also didn’t want to die either. He wanted my help. And he got it… just a few months later than he was expecting.” Nico’s eyes, once again, well up with tears, easily spilling over this time. The rain doesn't hide the way he has to sniffle to keep his nose from dripping a line of snot down his face. He lifts his free hand, rubbing at his face and eyes. He takes an uneven breath in, and it leaves faster than he wants it to.

“And so much happened before that, too. I knew what I had to do. I kept having dreams and visions, and we met a demigod in Oklahoma who was having dreams about Jason being alive too. And then Juno came to us and told me she wanted me to, and gave Will her blessing. At one point, I tried to summon his ghost to ask his permission, but Jupiter was clearly interfering, and so I just went. And when we got there, someone had messed with his memories even in Elysium, so I had to trust my gut. And my gut said bring him back.” Nico looks up at Lupa, almost at the end of his story.

“But when we escaped the Underworld and stepped outside, there was thunder, and suddenly Jason wasn’t himself anymore. I don’t know what happened. My sister told me only another god could fix him, and I was afraid asking Apollo would cause too much trouble with the gods. So I brought him to you.”

Silence. The sound of rain and distant thunder rolls heavy in Nico’s ears. He watches as Lupa’s stares at him, expression unchanging and eyes glossy. He hears Jason swallow to his right, Will squeezes his hand again to his left. 

Finally, Lupa looks away. She gazes off into the distance, off into the dark green forest. As if he were a ghost, haunting the place, Nico sees a tiny visage of little Jason running between the ruins. Short blonde hair bright in the sun they can’t see, scar large and bumpy over his lip. He laughs and claps as he chases the tails of wolves, barely four years old. They nip playfully at his tiny hands, barking with excitement, until they all run into Lupa where she stands in the present day. The joy drains from Jason’s eyes, embarrassment coloring his rosy, pale cheeks. He looks up at her, guilty, baring his neck. And when Lupa leans down to nuzzle at him, her snout passes straight through the image— dispelling the memory into the rainy haze. 

Lupa sighs, heavy and burdened. There’s a sniffle. She lifts her head slowly, shoulders straightening and eyes hardening as she turns to look back at the three demigods before her. 

“It was very smart of you, little Hades. To bring him to me,” Lupa says, her voice artificially steady— controlled. “Jupiter has unclaimed Jason as his son in retaliation for him helping Apollo. To ask a favor of Apollo would have been the end of you all, Apollo included.” 

Will’s head snaps up.

“Wait! He unclaimed Jason? He can do that? The gods can just… revoke our powers like that? How do you know it was because of Apollo?” Will’s voice grows more and more panicked with each word, a lot of questions at once, but Lupa doesn’t bat an eye. She walks forward, careful about each step, until she’s just in front of Nico, looming over him. 

“They should not be able to, but Jason should not be alive, so we are all bending rules, here.” Nico can feel the rumble of her words through the ground. He takes a steadying breath. “And I know it was about Apollo, because Jupiter will not shut up about it.” This time, when she snarls, Nico feels like part of her pack, hearing and feeling her annoyance, instead of like her prey. “The gods are fighting again. And I want no part in their useless quarrels. It is like they are all undisciplined children. They could learn a thing or two from the legion.” 

The bitterness in her voice has a bite to it that Nico has heard before, a frustration with the gods usually unique to demigods. (Mostly Percy and Annabeth. They’re currently leading the effort of remembering how much the gods suck in Luke’s stead.) Nico looks at Will and then back to the goddess, newfound determination in his eyes.

“So? Will you help us or not?” Nico asks, throat raw from talking. 

“You Greeks always did have soft hearts. Jackson alone, I think, has the heart of an entire legion of Romans,” Lupa quips, and Nico swears he can hear the edge of a smile in her voice. “Perhaps that is why Jason has taken such a liking to the Greek way of things. His heart was always out of place at Camp Jupiter."

She hums, deep and rumbling. Almost as if she were purring. Her silver eyes brighten as they bore into Nico's. " First, I owe you a thank you. For taking care of Jason. Even leaders need the support of their pack behind them,” she says, her words still measured, but sincere.

“Second, while I would usually say I cannot interfere with the lives of my pups, as it is against my nature and the contract of the gods, Jupiter has already made it known that with Jason we are not playing by the rules. You and Juno have followed suit, and so shall I. But I make no promises. I am not Lycaon. I cannot simply make Jason a werewolf and claim him.” 

Nico can see the sadness in her eyes when she looks at Jason— a pup who, at one point, she thought was never coming home. Nico thought Lupa would be similar to Hera, the mother-knows-best type. All control and expectations and no love. A child for the sake of passing on a legacy or gaining reach and power. But Nico sees now that it’s different. Lupa cares deeply about the Roman demigods who come and go from her pack. She nurtures them with a firm hand, knowing that without discipline and experience they’ll fall prey to the first monster they meet, the first battle they fight. She’s a mother who knows her children are headed off to war, but she’s still a mother above all else. 

“Even if you can only make him see through the Mist— we’ll take anything,” Nico insists, separating himself a bit from where he had leaned into Will’s side subconsciously. 

Lupa stretches, shoulders cracking in a cornering way. “Let us see what I can do.”

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Jason stands in the center of the Wolf House, heavy rain slashing sideways, battering all of them where they stand. Their little reprieve is over. Jupiter must know what’s happening. But flooding Sonoma Valley won’t be enough to stop Nico. Not now. Not when he’s so close.  

Jason shivers where he stands, Nico in front of him, watching as Lupa circles them both. Slow and steady. Stalking her prey. He looks so afraid in a way Nico has never seen on the other boy’s face— always so put together, always the leader. 

“Jason, look at me,” Nico finally says, nearly shouting to be heard over the rain. He can barely hear himself.

Cloudy blue eyes finally land on Nico’s face, filled to the brim with fear. 

“What’s going on?” Jason asks, voice so shaky and quiet that Nico is mostly reading his lips to understand what he said. 

“She’s going to fix you.” Nico’s hands are on Jason’s biceps, gripping tight. He’s trying to communicate without words that Jason is going to be okay. Not his strong suit as a son of Hades. There aren’t many people who find his touch or his presence comforting.  

“Fix me? The wolf?!” Jason tries to pull back, but Nico holds him steady. 

“Yes— Jason, I need you to trust me. Please? It’s safe. You’re safe. Do you trust me?” 

For a moment, Nico sees himself standing in front of Jason, the rest of the Argo II crew around them. His body in pain, his heart even heavier. He pulls a chalice back from his lips and holds it out to Jason. He remembers being surprised that his hands didn’t shake. "You asked me about trust, and taking a risk? Well, here you go, son of Jupiter. How much do you trust me?” Jason didn't hesitate. He took the cup and drank.

And Jason, in this moment, doesn’t hesitate either. 

“Of course I do,” he says, the words leaving his mouth so fast even he seems shocked by himself. Nico’s heart swells three sizes. Even without all of his memories in a row, one thing remains the same: Jason trusts him in the ever consistent, intrinsic, almost concerning way he always has. Jason takes a deep breath, filling and emptying his lungs a few times before forcibly unclenching his jaw. And then relaxing his shoulders. And then shaking out his hands. 

“I trust you,” Jason repeats, for good measure.

Nico squeezes where he’s holding Jason’s arms once, and then lets go.

“Thank you,” Nico says. And he means it. He really means it.

He backs up, joining Will at the edge of the pack by the other human demigods, and waits. Jason is still looking at him, an odd expression on his face, while Lupa continues her walking.

Her head turns to Jason as she traces her wide circle. 

“I told you, once, that you would be our saving Grace. The world isn’t done with you yet. Little Hades has convinced me,” she says, and Jason’s eyes go wide. Nico can tell that Jason can finally hear her, see her for what she really is. The fog around Jason dissapates, bringing him into sharp relief. 

Parting the Mist for a short time is an easy task for a goddess. It’s getting it to stick, and getting the real versions of Jason’s memories back, that are going to be the problem. 

“Do you remember the day you arrived here?” she asks. Jason’s shoulders unfurl even further, pulling back into the posture Nico recognizes best. He hooks his hands behind his back, fixes his stance so his feet are splayed wider. Confident, solid. Blue eyes look up at the clouds. For a flicker of a second, Jason looks right again, in a way he hasn’t since Nico saw him last at Camp Half-Blood. Square shoulders, hair perfectly in place, jaw clenched. Or maybe it was just a trick of the rain.

“I was two. My mom left me here. I cried for her to come back for hours.” He speaks it to the sky instead of Lupa, a shuddering breath entering and leaving his chest, heavy. 

“You did. But I found you.” 

Jason nods. His eyes squeeze shut. 

“I— why am I here? I thought—” Another unstable breath. “Did I not…?” Jason opens his eyes again, and they’re bright silver. Lupa’s mark.

“You did die. For Apollo. For your friends. For Rome. You did a very noble thing. I was very angry that Jupiter let you die.” 

Jason looks taken aback by this, startled by the suggestion. Offended, even. His eyebrows pinch together in an angry way Nico hasn’t seen since their fight with Cupid. Jason’s rage and indignation is the only reminder Nico has ever encountered that Zeus and Jupiter are also the god of justice. 

“Jupiter didn’t let me die. I chose to die. One of us had to. And I wasn’t going to let Piper—”

“Did you not pray to your father in your last moments to strike your enemies down? To your patron, Juno, for a burst of strength? To Aphrodite, to save her daughter? To Hades, for Nico’s aide? To Poseidon, for you and your companions to survive the fall if you split the boat in two? To the hundreds of minor deities you had just built shrines for, for anything? To me, to protect Camp Jupiter if you failed? Did you receive any answers?” Lupa snarls, something so primal and gutteral Nico’s heart skips a beat. She stops her circle to get up in Jason’s face. This Jason, the one who remembers it all, does what Nico couldn’t do and holds his ground. He snarls right back, and all the Roman demigods around Nico gasp in fear. Fear for their lives or for Jason’s, he’s not sure.

“They made it! Piper lived,” Jason argues.

“Because of you.” Lupa snaps her maw at Jason. He stands back at attention— fixing his posture and baring his neck as he tilts his head to the sky again. Not to the side. Submitting to her authority, but not backing down. “None of the gods came to your aid. Because Jupiter did not let them. He threatened war against anyone who came to assist you. Because assisting you would be assisting Apollo, which all of the gods were banned from doing.” 

That’s— did he really pray to all of those gods? And none of them answered? Nico is glad it’s raining— shielding the sight tears running down his face from the world. He looks at Will. His soft blue eyes are just as broken, just as upset. 

Jason always did everything he could for everyone, for the gods. And he wasn’t allowed to receive anything in return. Because of Jupiter and his stupid ego.

Jason blinks, slow. He swallows, slow. He tilts his head down, slow, until it hangs heavy.

“Hades answered,” Jason whispers. “When I died— Hades showed up. And he took me to Elysium. So that when my friends died, I could see them again. I… didn’t want the Roman afterlife.” 

Nico’s heart can’t decide if it wants to beat out of his chest or shatter into a million pieces. He sends a prayer to his father instead, snot running out of his nose as he hiccups into the rain, crying. 

“Which he could do because you were already dead. Jupiter said nothing about helping you once you were dead.” Lupa walks forward, pushing her head up and under Jason’s, slotting their foreheads together and lifting his face up. “It is time, little pup. You were my little soldier, and then Juno’s, and then Jupiter’s. And we have all failed you in your time of need. So it is time to be your own champion, Jason Grace.”

Champion of none.

The air glows silver. A shimmering bubble, pocked like the moon, surrounds Lupa and Jason. The light grows brighter and brighter, until Nico remembers to close his eyes lest he go blind. All the wolves howl, louder than the thunder overhead. The sound nearly shatters his eardrums, echoing throughout the forest.

Nico’s eyes roll into the back of his skull. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

When Nico’s eyes finally flutter open, the sun is so bright that his heart drops into his stomach as he thinks, for a moment, that he’s in Elysium. That Lupa killed them all.

But then he keeps blinking, and takes a deep breath in. And then another. 

The grass underneath him is tall enough to cover his face, crowding his view of the perfectly blue sky, cobblestone walls stretching up and up at the sides of his vision—

“Jason!” Nico sits up with a start, looking around frantically and— he’s right there. Sitting on vine-infested steps at the entrance to the Wolf House surrounded by wolves. Twenty of them, each playfully fighting for his attention— rubbing up against him and laying their heads in his lap. Even the other Roman demigods are trying to talk to him, crowding around Jason and talking over one another. But at the sound of his name, Jason abandons all of them. He whips his head around to look at Nico, with watery, perfectly sky-blue eyes. 

“Nico!” His face breaks out into a wide smile, and Nico scrambles up off of the ground, completely uncaring that he’s covered in dirt and mud and other things, and sprints at Jason. The older boy barely gets a chance to stand up before he’s being tackled back to the ground, arms full of Nico.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry that I— I’m— I’m so sorry—” Nico chokes on every word, barely able to breath as he curls into Jason’s chest and sobs for everything he’s worth. He wants to punch Jason, like he did with Leo, for having the audacity to die— but then Nico remembers all over again that Jason (unlike Leo) tried not to. And he’s wailing all over again.

“He missed you,” Will’s voice behind Nico chuckles, soft and sad and full of tears of its own. “We all did.” 

“You— you came back for me,” Jason says, voice full of awe. His arms wrap around Nico and clutch tight, letting Nico lay on top of him and squirm and sob until he tires himself out.

“Of course I came back for you, you fucking—” Nico pushes himself up in a rage to look down at Jason. “I would have never let you die in the first place if I had gotten any of your letters! I should have come to visit like I said I would, but we got so busy with stuff at camp and—” 

“What happened?” Jason interrupts him, hand coming up to stroke at the side of Nico’s face. He traces rough fingers across the massive scar there. There’s so much to catch him up on.

“It’s old at this point. I offered to heal it, but Nico thought it looked badass, so he kept it,” Will giggles, wiping the tears from his face with the backs of his palms. 

Nico blushes, turning to push at Will’s chest and flick him off, but refusing to let go of Jason just yet. 

“It does look badass,” Jason says, laughing. “And if my messed up Mist memories serve me right…” Jason looks between Will and Nico, eyebrows raised. 

“Do you want to tell him or do you want me to?” Will asks, quiet, giant smile never leaving his face. 

Nico whips back around to look down at Jason. “You’re, like, half a year late to Will and I officially dating, asshole,” Nico grumbles, folding his arms over his chest. He’s so overwhelmed with emotions that he can’t do more than pretend to be mad at Jason. Like when he was talking to Jakobe— anger is so much easier of an emotion to reach than the others. 

Maybe he should evaluate that. But now isn’t the time.

“You’ll have to fill me in on everything I missed.” Jason smiles back, laughter clear in his voice, but there’s something underneath it. When Nico spares a glance down at his face, he can see the tears there, but he doesn’t have to guess, because Jason’s breath hitches and he’s looking away, saying, “I’m sorry I missed it.” 

“Don’t apologize—” Nico huffs. He slides off of Jason and onto the grass next to him, tucking himself against Jason’s side. He can hear the other boy’s heartbeat like this— alive. Nico did it. Jason is alive. 

Jason nods and closes his eyes, smiling losing some of its sad edge, and takes his glasses (somehow fixed) off of his face to fold them and set them gently in the grass. He flops back, hands above his head, and basks in the sun like he was meant to be there. Will sits down next to Nico’s head criss-cross apple-sauce. Some of the wolves pad over and join them, laying all over Jason and rumbling. 

And Jason rumbles, too.

What the Hades?

Nico looks at his friend, bewildered, putting a pause on all of the complicated, tangled emotions in his chest for a second. And, once again, Jason looks different. His canines are sharp, just visible with Jason’s toothy smile. His hair is outgrown like it was when he was unclaimed, but it’s more deliberately shaggy, now. Thick and fluffy instead of sad. His features are sharper, his muscles are back, and he’s laying down but Nico feels like he might be even taller. (Nico really is going to kill all of friends. Wasn’t 6’1” enough?! Do they all have to be a whole foot taller than Nico?)

At least he didn’t sprout ears and a tail. That definitely crossed Nico’s mind when he first thought of asking Lupa for help. 

Will must notice it too, because at the same time that Nico is looking, Will asks, “How do you feel? You look different.” Jason cracks a bright blue eye open to look at Will.

“Everything kind of hurts, but I feel the same for the most part, I think. I look different?” 

“I’m sure it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Will laughs. “I’m just testy about that stuff right now after what happened with Juno.”

“What happened with Juno?” 

Will and Nico exchange a look and then glance at the sword at Will’s hip. Jason’s eyes follow. 

“My sword!” Jason’s eyebrows shoot up, both eyes open now. “Wait— you look different!” 

Lupa interrupts them. “You won’t be needing it, anyways. You always did prefer to fight with your hands.” She pads over with a toothy smile (or what Nico assumes is a smile), looming over all of her pups and Nico and Will.

Jason preens when she says it, like that’s a compliment. Nico thinks back to the stories he heard about Jason when he first arrived at Camp Jupiter to deliver Hazel— about how Jason fought and defeated Krios in hand-to-hand combat. So he supposes it is a compliment. Defeating a titan with your bare hands is, even by the standards of what Nico has seen, incredibly impressive. 

“What do you mean, I won’t be needing it?”

“You’ll see,” Lupa snorts. “As wonderful as it is to have Jason back, Jupiter definitely knows by now, so you three should get somewhere safe. Walk and talk.” Lupa noses at Jason’s face, licking him on the cheek once while he beams. His teeth are really sharp—  

“To Camp Jupiter we go?” Will says, standing and putting his hands on his hips. He’s also covered in mud and absolutely filthy from the previous rain. Nico is sure they smell disgusting now that they’re baking in the hot sun. That doesn’t matter, though. Not when Nico is busy taking in the bright smile on his boyfriend’s face. 

“To Camp Jupiter!” Nico exclaims, looking up at Will from the grass.

They did it. They really did it. And Will stayed by his side through the whole thing. From Oklahoma to the Underworld. 

All of the emotions Nico has been holding back crash over him. 

Will is different, Jason is different, but hells, Nico is different. So much has happened in the last six months. For his self-esteem, his relationships, his friendships. The way he looks and talks and thinks. And Nico wouldn’t have it any other way. 

He doesn’t know what to do with all of these new swirling feelings, joy trying to leave the ends of his fingertips in twitches and bursts, so he does the only thing he knows when he’s overwhelmed with happiness— he stands and grabs Will by the face, pulling him in for a quick kiss, hoping Will can feel all the things he’s thinking through it.

“Wait a minute—! You’re in the kissing phase?!” 

Will and Nico whip around. Oops. Jason stares at them, mouth wide open, and they stare back with matching guilty looks on their faces. 

“I can’t believe it. I missed your first kiss,” Jason says, honest to gods pouting. If Lupa did give him ears, they’d be pressed flat against his head. The puppy eyes are strong enough to rival Percy’s. 

“We can recreate it for you, if you want?” Will jokes.

Jason holds a hand up, red in the face. “Nope, absolutely not. I’m good, thanks.” He laughs, but when he looks at Nico, that glint in his eyes, Nico knows he’s going to be forced to spill every detail the next time they’re alone.

Gods, Nico missed Jason.

Chapter Text

“—because for some reason, Will thought it would be a good idea to take the pegasi out—”

“I thought you were being dramatic about them not liking you! Mr. Nobody wants me around!” 

Jason laughs at Nico and Will as they push at each other, giggling. The three of them pick their way through the grass alongside the road, shoulder to shoulder to shoulder. Close enough that Nico can see the soft, proud smile on Jason’s face in HD. Nico once swore he’d trade the world to have that smile directed at him one last time— and here they are.

Nico hopes it doesn’t actually cost them the world. You can never be too sure when the gods are involved.

“Sounds like a riveting first date.” Jason raises his eyebrows at the two other boys, still holding back his full smile as they laugh him off. 

“It was fun,” Nico admits, voice small. He has to look back down at his feet, both Jason’s happy expression and Will’s twinkling eyes too much for Nico. He’s definitely blushing. He has been this entire time. As soon as they started their walk out of Lupa’s territory, Jason demanded to hear as many details about their relationship as they were willing to spare, and they’ve been having way too much fun telling him everything they can think of. 

They decided to start with the story of their first date. Or, rather, Nico tried to start there— Will keeps interjecting to defend himself over all the things that went wrong. It was a really fun date, though. Even if Nico was too shy to do more than mutter a few words and stare off into the distance. In his defense, Will wasn’t much better. The son of Apollo talked the entire time, desperate not to let it be silent, and asked Nico if he was okay between every sentence. 

Oh, how far they’ve come. Now Nico is the one who won’t shut up. They’re still working on the Will constantly making sure everyone around him is okay before caring for himself thing, though. One day at a time. But it’s on the list, and Nico won’t let him forget it! Right next to Will making choices about his life based on what would be the easiest for people around him rather than what he wants. 

Speaking of, Nico can’t forget to tell Jason they’re thinking of going to high school. Maybe Jason can help him with his homework.

“Pegasi are surprisingly opinionated,” Jason is saying, when Nico zones back into the conversation. 

“How would you know?” Nico challenges, unable to wipe the grin off of his face even as he lifts an eyebrow at his friend. Again, Jason flashes him that little smile. Blue eyes haven’t left Nico’s face for the last hour— Will’s or Jason’s. He’s used to it by now from Will, but Jason has this bright look in his eyes that he can’t quite place. Nico can only describe it as wonder. Maybe it’s a side effect of being alive again.

“Percy used to translate for m—” Jason stops dead in his tracks. Both Nico and Will stop to look back at him, matching looks of confusion on their faces. 

“Oh my gods, Percy. He’s going to kill me,” Jason gasps, stuck between laughter and genuine fear. He lands on a wet chuckle, bringing his hands up to rub away the gathering tears. 

In a shocking turn of events, it’s Will who looks to Nico for an answer. Comforting people may not be his strong suit, but Jason is definitely one of Nico’s strong suits. Nico walks up to his friend, putting a cold hand on his shoulder. 

“He’s definitely going to try to kill you, but he’s going to have to go through me, first. I went through a lot of effort to bring you back,” Nico jokes, trying to keep Jason on the laughter side of his crying. 

“Nico!” Will exclaims, but thankfully Jason does laugh. 

“I kinda deserve it. I missed him and Annabeth going to New Rome…” With that, all the laughter dies. Jason’s face scrunches in on itself, draining until all the color is gone. “I promised them that I’d— We said we’d—” Jason doesn’t know how to finish. He stops speaking, mouth pressed into a thin line and scar going stark white, eyes turned up to the sky like if he gets the angle right, the tears won’t boil over. 

Nico cringes. All the promises Jason and Percy made — all the things they said they’d do together and all the places Jason swore he’d show them when they arrived — left unfinished. 

Percy definitely took Jason’s death… differently than Nico did. The pain was equally piercing, the loss equally strong, but there was something about Percy’s sobs when Piper dropped Jason’s necklace into his hands. A dullness in his face and eyes during that trip that wasn’t there before Jason’s death. It was scary. 

Nico hopes that, if nothing else, bringing Jason back soothes whatever Percy is going through. 

Hey, wait a minute. Nico is doing it! He’s thinking of Percy as a real friend, again. There was no undercurrent of bitterness, no correcting his own thoughts. Only hope that Percy will be okay. For his own sake. 

Nico’s not surprised in the slightest that bringing Jason back helped with that.

It’s then that Nico realizes it’s been too long since Jason spoke, the three of them frozen in uncomfortable silence. The problem is, Nico doesn’t know what to say. His first reaction is to apologize, but… it’s not like they’re gone. If anything, Nico is sure Percy is going to be bouncing off the walls to spend every waking moment with Jason now that he’s back.

So, for once in his life, and only for Jason, Nico decides to look on the bright side. Which is gross. That’s supposed to be Jason’s job.

“They’re still in New Rome. And they’ll be there for at least four more years, maybe more if Percy doesn’t pick a major soon,” Nico says, adding the last bit under his breath at Percy’s expense. Can’t get too nice on the guy. It’ll ruin Nico’s image. “You can still do all the things you wanted to do.”

Jason blinks at the advice, eyebrows slowly raising and shoulders losing their tension. It’s understandable — Nico’s not sure when he started sprouting wisdom, either. 

“Yeah. That’s true. I keep forgetting that I’m not still… well…” Jason trails off, glancing at Nico apologetically. He rubs at his face like he’s reminding himself that he’s warm and alive. 

Nico gets that feeling. He remembers it well from when he was recovering in the infirmary after the war. He expected so deeply to die getting Reyna and the Athena Parthenos to camp that he never stopped to consider what might come after recovering. There wasn’t supposed to be a recovering. He had a hard time remembering to live his life and not lay around all day every day, let it keep passing by. He wasn’t dead… yet. Even if it felt like he was. Or that he should be. Thankfully, Will wasn’t the type to let him get away with holing up in his cabin for more than twelve hours at a time.

“I’d bet all my drachmas Percy is wearing a hole in the floorboards of his apartment as we speak, pacing back and forth waiting to see you,” Will says, walking over to pat Jason on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you back to your boyfriend in no time!” Will laughs, trying to bring some light back to Jason’s face. Hilariously, it works. 

“I’ve been alive for less than a day and the bromance jokes are already back. Good to know nothing has changed.” Jason tries to give Will an exasperated look, but his smile is too big. It breaks through— teeth showing and joy returning to his eyes. 

They pass around a laugh, and both Will and Nico let go of Jason with a squeeze. Unfortunately, they have to keep moving, but at least now the atmosphere feels lighter. A weight has lifted off of Jason’s shoulders, leaving him smiling even more genuinely than before and eyes twinkling as he takes in the world around them. 

The weather is surprisingly pleasant. The sun beats down on them and the air thick with the morning’s rain, but there’s a nice cool breeze in the wind. Enough to keep them from sweating through their (already ruined) clothes immediately. 

Will and Jason take up chatting back and forth, carrying the conversation while Nico watches on. He lets himself fall a single pace behind so he can stare at his two favorite people— talking away and laughing loudly at one another. Will’s camp t-shirt and cargo shorts are always a sight for sore eyes, and Jason’s #1 Gay Bar t-shirt seals the deal. Will starts gesturing wildly, discussion taking a passionate turn, and Nico can’t help but smile. 

He’s not sure he’s ever been happier.

Which, of course, can only mean one thing: something bad is about to happen.

Now, you can accuse Nico of being a pessimist. Or manifesting bad things (or whatever it is Lou Ellen says he does). You could even insist he inflicts unfortunate events upon himself by seeking them out when things are going too well. 

But is it really Nico’s fault when it happens every. Single. Time?

The first thing Nico notices is that the pleasant Autumn wind from earlier has started to pick up. Which isn’t all that strange by itself. It was pouring rain less than a few hours ago— a little bit of wind is no big deal. In fact, Nico is surprised it’s not still raining. Jupiter seemed adamant about drowning the entire state of California in retribution for Jason’s return.

But nothing is that simple or that by itself when you’re a demigod. So, the wind puts him on edge.

Never too cautious, Nico eyes the sides of the road, dropping another pace behind Will and Jason just in case. If it’s nothing, he doesn’t want to ruin Jason and Will’s conversation, but there’s something tickling at the back of his senses. 

He gets the distinct feeling that they’re being followed. Watched. 

The wind picks up a little more. Strong enough now to ruffle Nico’s hair into his face. 

“Everything okay?” Will looks over his shoulder to ask, curls tousled in front of his face in the wind, blocking his blue eyes from Nico’s view. Nico must have fallen a lot further behind than he meant to. 

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, just… the wind. And—” Nico looks around before continuing. Nothing. “It’s nothing. Got a weird feeling.” 

“A weird feeling isn’t nothing when you’re a demigod,” Jason snorts, looking around too. “I didn’t even realize it had gotten windier,” he mutters, like that’s unusual for him. Which, Nico supposes it is, being a son of Jupiter. 

“Can you call Jules-Albert from here? Or do we need to walk further?” Will asks, looking to Nico. The wind is making a rats nest of his curls, his back to the wind so it pushes them all up in front of his face. Into weird, tangled, bangs. Nico has to resist the urge to smooth them back. Maybe pat Will on his freckled cheek afterwards…

Focus on the task at hand, Nico!

“Let’s keep moving. Standing still feels like a bad idea.” Nico starts moving forward again, this time with purpose. He steps out onto the road to call Jules-Albert and the wind whips even stronger, probably making a second welcoming home for a rat of Nico’s hair, too. Will and Jason both get the hint— falling in line with Nico’s brisk pace. He whistles, sharp and shrill, his usual call to Jules-Albert, but gets no response. “Not yet. I’ll keep trying.” 

They all keep their heads on a swivel, Nico and Will both with a hand on their swords, Jason’s fingers twitching at his sides. 

They keep walking, Nico whistling intermittently. Jules-Albert doesn’t answer. Nico was fairly sure they only walked about twenty minutes from the limo to the Wolf House on the way in, and it’s definitely been over half an hour. Nico starts to worry. 

Especially because the wind is breaching inexplicable territory. 

There’s not a cloud in the sky, and yet Nico feels like the air is resisting him with every step forward. It’s fast enough to completely push his hair out of his face— flattening Jason’s hair against the top of his head and swirling Will’s curls around in tiny tornadoes. Jason has to hold onto his glasses when he turns his head, and all of their shirts buffet in the wind.

“This is not normal wind behavior, right?” Nico asks Jason, squinting up at the sun in the sky. 

“Um… I don’t think so!” Jason looks properly concerned now. As Jason turns around, a tiny green frog flies out of nowhere and nearly smacks him in the face. He jerks out of the way just in time. “What the—?” 

The three of them watch it get lifted through the air and smack its way across the ground. 

“Save him!” Will hollers, as if that were an appropriate battle cry for a frog, and runs after it. Jason and Nico sprint to keep up. 

Nico gets there first. Scooping it off the ground, he holds the tiny green frog up in triumph— just for another one to go flying past. What in the Hades?

“Is it raining frogs?” Nico yells over the wind, horrified, as it tumbles down the road. Jason puts his hands out to snatch another one hurtling towards them. Surely there’s not a god of frogs that could be out to get them, right? That’s something Jason would know. Maybe he’s planned a shrine for a god or goddess of frogs before he died and they didn’t like it…? “Is there a god of frogs?” Nico asks, at the same time that Will asks, “Is it okay?” 

Though he’s not sure Will’s healing powers will work on frogs, Nico follows instructions and checks him for injuries anyway. He holds his new little buddy up to his face. It blinks, one eye at a time.

It reminds Nico of the trogs. But way cuter. And way less thoughts behind its eyes.

“No, there’s no Greek god of frogs. I’m pretty sure it’s just the wind picking them up,” Jason says. He leans in and looks at his own frog, gently cupping his hands to shield it from getting whisked away again, inspecting it left and right. When he finds nothing, Jason pulls back and closes his eyes. His nose scrunches up into the bridge of his glasses as he concentrates. “Something’s up with the wind. I can’t feel it like I usually can. Maybe it’s—”

“Well, look at what we have here!” A deep voice interrupts Jason from behind them. Jason’s eyes snap open at the same time that Nico whips around to look. He scrambles to put his new frog buddy somewhere safe while he reaches for his sword. Adorably, the easiest spot ends up being in the front pocket of his button-down shirt. Its little head pokes out the top.

When Nico finally gets situated and looks up, across from them stands a teenage boy. He’s as large as Jason, even broader in the shoulders somehow, highlighted by his sleeveless blue football jersey that Nico won’t pretend to recognize. His black hair is greased back into a Superman style with enough pommade to make Nico gag when he pictures the texture of it.

Worst of all, he has this big, cocky smile on his face that Nico absolutely hates. Definitely a monster. 

How did they not see him before?

The boy saunters forward, arms outstretched like he’s giving a speech to a crowd of thousands instead of just to Nico, Will, and Jason. And their two frogs. Can’t forget about them!

“If it isn’t Jason Grace! Find a new posse to drag around, did you? I have to say, I liked the other one better. I wasn’t a Leo fan, but at least you had that pretty girl. If I thought they were losers, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel, man.” The boy laughs the same way Disney villains do, where only he finds it funny and no one else moves a muscle. He runs a hand over his hair to make sure it’s still in place— as if it could go anywhere when it’s rock solid from gel.

“Dylan?!” Jason frantically holds his new frog friend to his chest. His face twists into disgust. “Piper has a name, you know,” Jason spits. How he manages to look absolutely terrifying and confident with his hands wrapped over a tiny frog, Nico would love to know so that he can replicate it. Maybe bottle it and sell it. “And what the hell are you doing here, anyways? Looking to get your ass handed to you? Again.” 

Dylan’s smile flattens into something sinister, his eyes devoid of anything. It reminds Nico distinctly of Octavian. Never a good sign. Especially because Nico actively tries very hard not to think about Octavian. Or compare anyone to him. Ever. 

“What am I doing here?” Dylan’s eyes spark with actual lightning, which is absolutely monster behavior. The problem is Nico has no idea which monster. “One of you is at fault for Typhon’s rebirth being delayed! And I was sent to fix that.” Nico doesn’t need clarification— a wind spirit seems like exactly the kind of monster that would be upset about Typhon’s downfall. They can fill Jason in later. There’s another, more pressing matter that Nico needs an answer to.

“What are you?” Nico asks, taking a step forward and grip tightening on his sword. He only gets halfway through his step, however, because Jason stops him with a hand on his shoulder. 

“Dylan is a venti. A wind spirit. And, actually, a venti who I distinctly remember promising not to attack me again!” Jason shoots a pointed look at Dylan. So that’s how they know each other…

And given that Jason died to something not Dylan related, Nico thinks it’s safe to assume Jason won that battle. With powers over the wind and the sky, it was probably a walk in the park. Nico hopes it’ll still be easy even if Jason can’t manipulate Dylan with the wind. 

“Well nobody told me you were here,” Dylan snarls, but quickly reigns it back in, standing up straight. “No big deal, though. I won't attack you! They will!” 

Nico opens his mouth to ask who they are, but he doesn’t get the chance. Five more figures materialize behind Dylan. More ventis. They’re different from Dylan— more dark, swirling amalgamations of wind with human faces and varying amounts of humanoid bodies, but all of them are contained by a different football jersey that threatens to tear off with how strong the winds of their bodies are. Those must be some high quality shirts. 

As the wind picks up, Nico puts a single finger on his frog pal’s head, making sure it’s still there and safe. It is— slimy and safe. Just how frogs are meant to be.

“Yeah! Let’s get ‘em!” One of them chants, mouth not moving but Nico assumes it’s the one that pumps his fist in the air. 

“For Typhon!” Another says. They swirl in and out of one another’s paths, creating a column of air that threatens to suck Nico in if he loses his balance. 

Great, a bunch of airheaded jocks set on trying to kill them. Nico’s favorite.

It feels a little ironic, actually. First they fought cheerleaders, and now they’re fighting football players. Nico is starting to feel like he’s in a bad Twilight-level high school coming of age movie. 

But instead of Vampires and Werewolves, it’s flaming cheerleaders and tornado football players. Alright, that’s stretching it a little. But you get Nico’s point.

Another frog flies past his face (Where are they coming from?! Why are they here?) that Will attempts to catch but watches mournfully as he misses and it keeps skidding away. It rushes past them to gather in the venti’s whirling cores, swirling inside their mass as the wind grows and threatens to blow them all over. Nico’s not sure he’s going to be capable of standing vertically much longer. He doesn’t exactly weigh very much, despite his best efforts. 

He digs his heels into the ground and manages to partially bury his boots into the gravel road. Which… gives him an idea, actually. Nico uses his powers to gather up some of the rocky substrate, willing it up and around his feet to keep him rooted. It’s a little too reminiscent of the time he spent as a corn plant, but it’ll work. At least now, if he falls over, he won’t go careening towards the venti. No longer at risk of tripping and stabbing himself, Nico pulls out his sword. 

The second Nico takes his sword out, Will reaches for his. It’s like he was waiting to copy him, still unsure of himself with the sword in his hand. Adorable. 

It won't be adorable when that uncertainty gets him killed, though. As soon as they get back to camp, Nico is teaching him how to properly use that thing. 

“Don’t do this, Dylan,” Jason warns, voice low in his throat. He lifts his hands, depositing his frog into his hair so it can have something to hold on to. Jason’s hands free, he brings both of his fists up to his chest, as if he’s getting ready to box Dylan out. It looks unnatural, but it’s the only choice he has. “You’re just going to lose again.” He snarls, confident, and Nico is reminded of when he first saw Jason fight. All the lightning and the extravagance— he was a sight to behold. A true child of The Big Three. Nico was shocked when he actually talked to Jason for the first time and the other boy was nothing like the calculated, deadly machine he witnessed.

In reality, Jason’s one of the gentlest people he knows. 

It’s a neat trick, though. Monsters prey on weakness. Nico wishes he could put on a poker face like that. He’s good, but he’s not that good. He couldn’t hold his own against Cupid, nearly crumpled under the weight of Lupa’s stare. Jason stared right back at both, teeth bared and chest puffed.

It doesn’t quite land like it usually does, though, with a frog using his hair as a lilypad. 

“This isn’t about me. Typhon will rise, and I won’t have your stupid little crew interfering again!” Dylan’s hands clench at his sides, the muscles in his arms straining. Nico can see every one of his veins. Which Nico isn’t into, but he knows someone who is— yep. Nico looks over to Will who is definitely looking directly at Dylan’s arms. Nico pulls his mouth into a flat line, trying not to laugh at his boyfriend’s red face. As if he could sense his eyes on him, Will glances at Nico and realizes he’s being watched. His eyes go wide and his cheeks flush, eyes darting away quickly to look at the suddenly very interesting ground instead. 

“Monsters? Really?” Nico whispers to Will. 

Will pinches his mouth together so as to not laugh and shoots him the middle finger behind his back. Which is unfair, because he knows Nico is bad at not laughing at inappropriate times. He has to stop petting his frog pal to smack his hand over his mouth.

“Says you. I remember someone being pretty distracted by a certain Empousa in a skirt,” Will whispers back, apparently dead-set on cracking through Nico’s attempts to stay quiet. Bring that up is totally not fair!

He makes a noise of protest through his hand, trying to get Will to shut up with his eyes. His boyfriend has the audacity to laugh at him. 

Thankfully, Jason is holding down the fort.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jason mocks Dylan as he shuffles to one side, putting them all in a better position— completely oblivious to the fact that his fellow demigods are not thinking about battle strategies right now. Having Will with him in fights is, frankly, very detrimental to Nico’s ability to concentrate. 

“We dusted Typhon earlier this week,” Nico leans forward, speaking low for only Jason to hear.

“You what?” Jason yell-whispers back, looking over his shoulder in shock. Nico can’t tell if he’s surprised about Typhon or if couldn’t hear Nico over the wind. 

“Alright, I’m tired of talking! Boys, you know what to do! Boss wants them alive,” Dylan announces to his lackeys, and then crosses his arms. There’s a second where nobody moves. Confusion strikes across Dylan’s smug face. “What are you waiting for?” Dylan snaps at the other venti.

“All of them?” “Who do we go for?” “Who killed him?” “It was him!” “No it was the other one!” They hiss amongst themselves and at Dylan, arguing. They scramble around one another, forming and reforming in the wind.  

“It doesn’t matter! Get them all!” Dylan yells, clouds crackling with lightning and pointing out at the group of demigods.

“Oh—” “Sorry!” “Right—” There’s a chorus of apologies.

“Or we could talk about it some more!” Will tries to reason with them as they start to rush the three demigods. To no one’s surprise, the venti don’t listen.

Nico checks his frog is secure one last time, and holds his sword up. He steps in front of Jason and Will, still using his powers to keep him connected to the ground. Each time he moves his foot, the asphalt follows him like molasses. Two are coming right at him, and Nico braces for impact— sword leveled straight forward.

He slices clean through the first venti. Or more accurately, it impaled itself on Nico’s sword, because Nico didn’t move at all. It crumbles to dust.

That was easy.

“Stupid!” Dylan shouts from the sidelines. 

Two go for Jason, but he crouches low and weaves between them as they dart past. He struggles against the wind, but keeps his center of gravity close enough to the ground that he manages not to topple over. He turns on them after they pass, front hand digging into the road to keep him there with— are those claws? 

Nico turns to watch the two venti do a circle and speed back at Jason, but he’s too busy keeping the second venti that came after him in his line of sight to help. Turns out, Jason doesn’t need the help anyways. He launches himself at one of them and they connect mid-air— Jason’s feet leave the ground and stay off the ground as he digs his new claws into where the back of the venti’s neck would be, forcing it to drop lower. Newly sharp teeth bared and blue eyes nearly glowing, Jason bites into its shoulder. The wind howls with pain, the swirling miniature storm of the venti’s body picking up speed to try and throw Jason off. When that doesn’t work, its form falters and tendrils start to skate away, attempting to return to the wind and reform somewhere else. But Jason holds fast, bites deeper. There’s a strangled yelp, a crack of lightning, and then it’s gone— nothing but golden dust left behind.

Two down.

The other venti that ran for Nico isn’t so keen on getting dusted as quickly as its companions, and chooses to be more of a nuisance than a threat. It darts around Nico’s head like a mosquito, whizzing back and forth. Nico swings his sword around aimlessly, trying to catch it somehow.

Nico glances to his left and Will, thankfully, is holding his own against the fifth and final venti. He’s still using his sword all wrong, but the venti doesn’t seem to know any better. It’s trying to fight Will without getting close to him, slinging lightning and bursts of strong winds. 

Eventually, with Will not used to playing both offense and defense at the same time, it gets lucky. A precise gust of wind catches Will in the stomach, and he goes flying backwards with a loud grunt. 

“Will!” Nico turns to his boyfriend, bobbing and weaving around his pest of a venti, to run towards him. Every time he tries to move forward, though, the venti manages to block him by darting right in his path again.

Nico grits his teeth, trying to see around the gray clouds of his opponent to see how Will is doing. He doesn’t hear anything too bad, but his anxiety tells him the wind could be carrying his voice away. 

“Would you quit that?! Hold still!” Nico yells.

For some stupid reason, the monster actually stops. “Why would I do that?” It asks. 

“So I can do this!” Nico says, letting his creepiest natural smile slip through, and slashes the venti straight through the chest. Dumbass jocks. 

He hears Dylan groan in the distance. 

Will seems to realize at the same time that his enemy has the mental capacity of a feather, and merely waits for the venti to dart closer to him. He rolls onto his back and lets the monster start rushing in, one hand up shielding his face from debris caught in its winds.

“I’ve got you now—” The venti never gets to finish gloating. As soon as he’s close enough to Will, he thrusts his sword out. Without enough time to react, the venti runs face first into Will’s sword. 

It disappears in a swirl of gold dust.

Four down, one to go. 

Nico and Will both look over to Jason. He’s playing a vicious game of tag with the last venti, which keeps darting in close and then running away when it realizes Jason’s got the advantage. 

They should go and help, but Nico feels glued in place. And not because his feet are still sucked a few inches into the ground. 

It’s because Jason is a sight to behold. 

Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter and Champion of Juno, was powerful. A force to be reckoned with. He fought with natural grace, pun intended, and years of training behind each movement. Like Nico said, the boy was a killing machine. A weapon in his own right. The air moved with him, the thunder boomed his praises. He struck opponents down with lightning like he was Jupiter smiting his enemies himself.

Jason Grace, blessed by Lupa, however, is… scary. Where there was once control in his eyes, it’s been replaced by raw hunger. His movements are desperate and lightning fast, no time to think between each action, no regard for his glasses or his clothing or his opponent. He fights with a permanent scowl, his mouth slightly open like he’s either about to start panting or lashing out with his teeth. There’s no posturing holding him back, no rules or Roman training— it’s all Jason. Unfiltered, rage filled, uncontrolled Jason. Like a dog let off of his leash for the first time.

Instead of moving to help, Nico can only think one thing: He would not want to be on the receiving end of this Jason. Jason, Son of Jupiter, he could spar with. He was fairly confident that if it came down to it, they’d be an even fight. This Jason… Nico’s not sure he wants to be in the sparring rink with. He’s terrifying. 

Jason yells, guttural and deep, as he finally gets a firm grip on the venti. He pulls, bare handed, and rips the wind spirit in two.

Seems like Lupa was right. He does know what to do without his sword. 

Jason pants, hands on his knees and covered in monster dust, and turns his intense eyes on Dylan. The corner of his mouth lifts, rage seeping out of the edges. Are you next? He seems to ask.

Dylan crackles with anger. Looks like he’s done putting up his human facade— dark clouds billow out from his back and envelope his body. The sky gets darker, even though the sun is still out— as if someone put a black and white filter over Nico’s eyes.

“Whatever. You’ll regret this when Typhon fully rises and comes for you all. It would have been a mercy to bring you to him now.” And instead of fighting Jason, Dylan stays true to his word. His clouds thin and eventually scatter, leaving the blue skies and sunshine behind. 

“Great. Just what I wanted to hear right after being brought back. Sounds like the start to another prophecy.” Jason runs a heavy hand down his face, smearing dirt and a little bit of blood there, groaning and breathing heavily. He keeps opening his mouth slightly and then snapping his jaw shut— Nico wonders if he’s tempted to stick his tongue out to cool down. On one hand, Nico hopes he does because it would be hilarious. On the other hand, Nico hopes he does NOT because Nico is positive he won’t be able to keep his laughter to himself.

“Actually… we already got a prophecy,” Will says, taking a seat in the middle of the road. He checks himself for grievous injuries, and then gestures Nico over to check him, too.

Jason’s face drops. “You’re joking, right?” 

Nico and Will exchange a look. A silent battle over which one of them is going to fill him in.

“You’re not joking. Great, cool, perfect,” Jason mumbles. He pushes his palms into his eyes and takes a big deep breath, letting it all out in a rush.

He’s interrupted by a ribbit. Jason’s eyes cross as he tries to look up.

“Oh, I almost forgot about you,” Jason mumbles. He reaches up to his head and plucks the frog out of his hair. How the Hades did it hold on for dear life through that entire fight? Can frogs get PTSD? If they can, Nico is positive that frog has it. Twins!

Jason sets it down carefully in the grass, watching to make sure it hops off.

Once Will is done giving Nico his check-up, deeming him free of injury, he reaches for Jason next. Nico looks down at his own frog, who also seems to be doing just fine. But… he doesn’t want to see it go.

“Can I keep him?” Nico blurts out, staring down at its little green face and wide eyes. 

Will, who Nico can’t see because Jason is bent over in front of him, is healing Jason’s bloody nose by aggressively holding his face and fussing over him. He stops what he’s doing to look over at Nico. 

“I mean… if you want to. Animals like frogs require a lot of care, though. And it’s better to get ones that were already bred in captivity and can’t be released to the wild anyways,” Will says back, a little too quick for Nico to follow. 

Jason, cheeks still squished between Will’s hands and straining his back to lean down, speaks up. “You sure know a lot about frog care,” he laughs. “Also, do you have to grab my face so hard?”

“Oh, sorry!” Will laughs, letting go as the glowing dies down and Jason’s nose goes back to fully functional. “And Kayla was into weird animals for a while— she tried keeping a snake in the Apollo cabin one Summer… That did not go well.” Nico shudders. Considering Apollo’s history with Python, he can’t imagine it would go anything other than catastrophic.

“You could get one that’s meant to be a pet when you get back to New York!” Jason offers, feeling his newly healed nose to make sure everything is in place. 

“Yeah… I could.” Nico looks down at his little friend, takes in his big shiny eyes one last time, and then helps him out of his pocket and onto the ground. It stares up at him, blinking with the left eye and then the right, ribbits out what Nico assumes is a thank you, and goes hopping off to join his friend. 

“I think you would like having a pet. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner,” Will says as they all watch the frog go on its merry way. “As soon as we get back I’ll ask Kayla for advice.”

“One condition,” Will adds.

“What?” Nico asks, raising an eyebrow at his boyfriend.

“No snakes.” Will performs an exaggerated shudder that Nico can’t help but giggle at.

“Got it. No snakes.” 

Jason holds a hand out to Will to help him up, which he gladly takes. Back on his feet, Will dusts himself off.

“Okay, tell me about this prophecy while we keep walking. Every monster and their mother probably knows where we are by now,” Jason says once they’re all situated. He points down the road, and the three of them start their journey back up. 

On the road again.

Nico repeats their prophecy to Jason.

“Thrice found hero, four eyes blind,
By Juno's chosen, Olympus divides;

Guardian of Rome, love hard won,
The grace of gods, champion of none.”

“We have most of it settled already,” Will speaks up, rubbing tenderly at the skid marks still at his elbows. They fade slowly, a gentle glow emitting from Will’s hands. Always saving himself for last with his healing powers. Another thing they need to talk about. Later. “Thrice found hero was you, and we won over Lupa. She said it herself, you’re your own champion now. The only thing we’re still waiting on, I think, is the second line. By Juno’s chosen, Olympus divides.”

“But… I’m not Juno’s chosen anymore,” Jason says, adjusting his glasses when they fall off kilter from the furrow in his brow. Those glasses have been through a lot.

“No. You’re not. I am.” Will gestures to Jason’s sword at his side.

Jason’s mouth forms a neat little ‘o’, light eyebrows lifting in surprise. “So that’s what you meant by the stuff that happened with Juno.” 

“She didn’t give him much of a choice,” Nico grumbles, picking mud off his thoroughly ruined new jeans. After the rain and the mud and the sun, they’re probably unsalvageable. He wouldn’t wish this on anyone’s washing machine. “She showed up in my dream, told me she approved of me coming to get you, and then when we had a fight with Typhon, Will picked up your sword and… received her blessing. Now he looks different.” Nico looks over at his boyfriend as he says it. Will gives him a big crooked smile that Nico knows means “and you like it”. Nico rolls his eyes, but can’t help the smile that flutters across his face in return.

“I didn’t get much of a choice either,” Jason laughs, a little bitter. “Is it bad that even though I don’t want the blessing back, I’m a little salty that she used the same sword and everything? I feel really unspecial all of the sudden.” Jason jokes, giving Will a once over as he keeps laughing. Whatever he sees there makes him nod with approval. “It does look good though.”

Will puffs his chest out, his smile going wide and toothy. “Thank you!” 

Nico rolls his eyes again. 

“Anyways,” Nico laughs. “In the fight with Typhon we found out there are two versions of Typhon. And the one that’s back is, we think, Hera’s son, technically. A gift from Kronos for Hera to use to overthrow Zeus in revenge for his infidelity. Or something like that. I was a little busy looking at Will to listen to Calypso’s story.”

“Gotcha,” Jason says, laughing. “I don’t think I’ve heard that one.”

“He was trying to stop us because apparently if Nico and I make it to Olympus with you, Hera won’t have a reason to be upset with Zeus anymore. And just like last time, she’ll warn Zeus and he’ll be prepared to fight Typhon.” Will fills in the rest that Nico forgot. 

As he finishes catching Jason up to speed, Nico tries his whistle out again for Jules-Albert. It works this time. He feels Jules-Albert ping him back from the other side. Thank the gods. (Really, just Hades. Nico redirects his mental prayer to be more specific.) He gives his companions a thumbs up and both boys’ shoulders sag with relief as they stop walking. They all plop down to sit on the side of the road and wait. No need to wear themselves out any further with their ride on the way.

“So… we need to go to Olympus? Aren’t we concerned about the whole Olympus divides thing if we go there?” Jason asks them, fidgeting with the now-too-tight edges of his t-shirt and trying to pull it all the way down. But while they’re sitting, it refuses to do anything but ride up uncomfortably. They should’ve found him an XL. Nico wasn’t thinking about non-mortal Jason.

“From the sound of it, Olympus is already divided. Everyone’s angry that Zeus didn’t let anyone come to your aid when you prayed. And they’re still pretty upset about the whole Apollo being cast out thing.” Will traces a line in the dirt by his feet. “I don’t see how we could make it any worse. If we don’t go, Typhon will try to overthrow Zeus and start a war. If we do go, we might start a war between the gods. Not great options.” 

Jason nods. “Three wars in one lifetime has to be some sort of demigod record, right?” His laugh is nervous, but there’s a real twinkle in his blue eyes. 

“That’s exactly what Chiron said,” Nico says, returning the look to his friend. Nico kind of gets it now when Annabeth said she missed going on quests when they took that very legal tour of Piper’s high school. Having a reason to hang out and talk and solve problems together feels… Nice. It’s almost like Nico could convince himself they’re back at camp, sitting in the dining pavilion planning for a game of capture the flag. 

He catches himself mourning that this will be over eventually. They’ll have to drop Jason off somewhere to live his life, and Will and Nico will return to Camp Half-Blood. 

But why is he worrying about it now when they’re nowhere near the end?

“Not to keep harping on the prophecy, but we also don’t have the phrases four eyes blind and the grace of gods completely figured out,” Will points out. “So who knows what’s in store for us.”

And on that note, the all black limousine pulls up in front of the group of boys and Jules-Albert rolls the window down to wave them in. 

“Well. One step at a time, I guess. Time to go home,” Jason’s voice is wistful, but it’s forced. 

The way he climbs into the car, slow and uneasy, reminds Nico there’s a reason Jason decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood and not go back to Camp Jupiter. And then go to school with Piper instead of going back. And there was a reason for that. Nico doesn’t know what that reason is, but For Jason’s sake, he hopes it isn’t anything too upsetting. Hopefully they won't be there very long. 

»↠ ≈☆≈ ↞«

Jules-Albert lets them out on the side of a very busy highway, and it’s then that Nico realizes he’s never taken the normal route into Camp Jupiter. Why would he when he was so used to shadow traveling everywhere?

If you could teleport everywhere without consequences, wouldn’t you?

Turns out, it wasn’t without consequences. But that was for later Nico to find out. And not a problem for barely-teenage Nico. 

“I’m assuming there’s an entrance somewhere?” Nico asks, looking out at the split highway packed with cars. It cuts into the base of a cliff, cars coming out of the left hand side and going in on the right. 

As soon as he asks, he notices the Roman legionnaires standing in between where the lanes split and enter the cliff. Guarding an inconspicuous looking maintenance door with a few bushes dotting the sides. Or, it would be inconspicuous, if not for the teenagers wearing armor and bright purple SPQR t-shirts standing directly in front of it. 

“Nevermind,” Nico laughs. “Found it.” 

“Yeah… not exactly hidden.” Jason chuckles. “The hard part is getting across the traffic. We usually wait until later at night when there’s less cars around to enter.”

“How are your powers feeling? Could you fly us over there?” Nico looks to Jason. He said something earlier about not being able to feel the wind, and he definitely didn’t have his powers when he was mortal. There’s a not-small chance he doesn’t have any of his abilities as a son of Jupiter anymore. Which is not something Nico wants to think about. 

“I’m not sure? Doesn’t hurt to try,” Jason says, and then closes his eyes. His brow furrows, a bead of sweat tracks down his forehead. Nico’s pretty sure he stops breathing, at one point. 

Nothing happens. Jason opens his eyes with a frustrated huff.

“Nothing. I knew something was up when we were fighting the venti. I couldn’t even sense the wind, let alone control it.” Jason looks down at his hands like they’re foreign to him. “No more flying powers, I guess.”

He’s clearly trying to hide how upsetting that is, but Nico sees it in his eyes. The life seems to get sucked out of them, turning them stormy gray, all of the breath leaving his chest. His wide frame deflates like a large balloon. Nico brings a thin hand up to Jason’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” is all Nico has to offer. He knows how much being able to fly meant to Jason. He loves sitting on rooftops, soaking in the night sky. Loves the open air and the wind and the sun. Nico gets it. If someone took away his ability to sense beneath the Earth, he’d be distraught. How would it feel to stand on the Earth and not feel the miles of ground and rock beneath him? The history, the bones, the soil? Would it constantly feel like being on a bridge, floating and empty? 

His words seem to be enough for Jason, who smiles wobbly at Nico, staring at the hand on his shoulder. 

“Thanks. It’s… it’s okay. I’ll take it over being dead, that’s for sure.” He meets Nico’s eyes, smile steadying out with reassurance, pulling at his scar.

“Plan B, then,” Will says, looking at the fast moving cars. Nico and Jason both wait, expecting Will to follow that up with an actual plan. 

“I… don’t have any ideas.” Will admits after a long pause, and they all laugh. Nico likes questing with Jason and Will. Despite everything, this is still a million times more fun than the Argo II was, and a whole lot less scary than his time with Reyna. And when it’s just him and Will, like in Tartarus, it’s nice but things can get a little strenuous. Two-person quests are difficult to manage, physically and emotionally. Having Jason here is a nice buffer. 

“Well. We could stand here and wait for traffic to clear.” Jason says, but he shifts from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. Nico doesn’t love it either. 

“I could shadow-travel us.” Looking left and right, there aren’t very many shadows around. The sun is directly above their heads at this time of day, and while there are trees lining the side of the road where they are, there aren’t any in the center. Their only options would either be the guard’s shadows or along the cliff somewhere and scale down. Neither are great choices.

“We’re sure there’s no other option?” Will squints at Nico. 

“I’m just throwing it out there! No one’s made any better suggestions yet, so,” Nico says, sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend. “Plus, it’s right there! I promise I have enough energy to get the three of us a whole twenty feet away.” 

Will, exasperated, turns to Jason for backup.

Backup does not arrive.

“Listen, if Nico says he has enough energy, I trust that. He knows his limits. I’m not going to turn down the easy option if Nico’s up for it.” Jason holds his hands up in surrender. 

Will sighs. “Alright, fine. Let's get it over with.” He holds his hand out, eyes scrunched shut and face already turning green.

“I’m starting to think you hate when I shadow travel because it makes you sick, and not because it makes me sick,” Nico laughs. 

“Don’t make me change my mind!” Will shakes his hand with impatience, and Nico grabs it. He holds the other out to Jason, who easily slides his large hand into Nico’s. Nico and Jason share a look, silently laughing at Will’s expense, and then Nico looks back over to the center of the highway. 

The two guards stand there, unmoving. One a tall menacing figure, the other small and stocky. They both have helms on, so Nico can’t tell if he knows them or not, completely covered. Still, he likes his odds of dodging a spear to the chest better than misjudging the shadow travel on the cliffside and falling into moving traffic. 

“Brace yourselves. I’m going to aim for the guard’s shadows, so we might startle them. Don’t get stabbed.” And with that, Nico sinks them into the shade from the trees overhead. 

It’s less than a second to pop back out on the other side, and they do, in fact, startle the guards. 

Just not in the way Nico was expecting.

Their forms waver the second the trio appears behind them— disappearing in a sparkling flash. The bushes next to the maintenance door disappear with them.

And out from the faux bushes stumble Hazel and Frank.

“Nico! Jason!” Hazel squeals, jumping up into Jason’s arms and almost toppling the both of them into the oncoming cars. Frank reaches around and steadies them both.

“Don’t kill him again!” Frank jokes, but there’s real panic in his voice. His laugh is extremely wet and already full of snot when he crushes Jason in a hug of his own, not waiting for Hazel to be done. He smushes his girlfriend’s curly hair against his broad chest, completely engulfing them both.

“Hey, guys,” Jason chokes out, overwhelmed by the onslaught and eyes watering. “Sorry about… that.” 

“Sorry?! Sorry doesn’t cut it, mister!” Hazel pulls back, pushing Frank with her, and Nico isn’t surprised to see she’s fully crying, tears running little rivers down her dark cheeks. “You— You!” Whatever words she wanted get stuck in her throat, and Hazel can’t bring herself to more than simply lean back into Jason, all the anger rushing out as she slumps against Jason in a more normal hug. “We missed you.” 

Jason looks down at the top of her head like he can’t quite believe she’s real, but he wraps his arms around her anyways, hugging her back properly. 

“I’d say I missed you too, but I don’t remember very much about being dead,” Jason chuckles. “I’m not sure I had any thoughts at all.” When he says it, he glances up at Nico. And Nico gets the message. He was thinking about one thing: waiting for Nico. 

“I had to— we—” Frank shakes his head in disbelief, also unable to talk through his tears. 

“We should go inside,” Will suggests, gently, motioning to the maintenance tunnel. Not a bad idea. They’re definitely causing a ruckus, and quite a few cars are slowing down to look at them as they drive by. 

Nico wonders what the mortals see. 

“Right, right,” Hazel dries her tears on her Camp Jupiter t-shirt. “Everyone in.” Her big lower lip wobbles as she turns the handle to the maintenance tunnel, but there’s a big smile plastered on her face. Excitement radiates from Hazel. Unlike Frank, who has gone pale as a ghost. And Nico would know.

With a creak, the door swings open and they funnel in. The warmly-lit tunnel extends far enough that Nico can’t see the end. The air in here is cold— stale and damp in a way that makes Nico feel safe. Hazel takes the front, ushering them forward. Frank hangs back, hand clasped knuckle-white tight against Jason’s shoulder to lead him in. His tears haven’t stopped. 

The door thunks closed behind them, heavy.

Frank's hand shakes against Jason’s shoulder. 

They walk for a few paces, Frank stumbling after Jason as Hazel talks, refusing to take her eyes off of her newly-resurrected friend. 

“Sorry about the ambush! We tried to use our praetor authority to be stationed outside the gate to wait for you three, but we were told no because it was too dangerous.” She rolls her eyes, looking very out of place with the big grin still on her face and the tears in her eyes. “So I used the Mist to trick today’s guards into leaving their post and to hide us away in case anyone from the legion came to check outside.” Her words echo off the walls. Hazel walks backwards and talks, golden hair bouncing with each step. Again, never taking her metallic eyes off of Jason.

Frank, however, is getting paler by the second. 

His steps slow, forcing Jason to slow down too with the grip he has on the other boy’s shoulder. 

Frank brings his free hand up with a tremor to his cropped black hair, gripping at his head. His knees give out on him a little, and he has to stop walking. The rest of their little crew stops with him, each taking a step towards him in concern. 

 “I just… need a second,” Frank whispers into the still air.

“Yeah, of course,” Jason says back, soft as a breeze, and follows Frank down when the other boy sinks to the ground. Frank's hand never leaves his shoulder. 

Silence surrounds them as Frank sits, chest heaving. The smile slides off of Hazel’s face. 

“Last time we were in here, your body was in a coffin.” Frank's fingers dig into Jason’s shoulder. Nico’s not sure if Jason winces from the pain or Frank’s statement. Face flushed red with holding back tears, Frank tucks his face into the crook of his elbow and hiccups once. Twice. 

And then the sobs break free. 

“Shit— I’m so sorry,” Jason whispers, watching with wide eyes as his friend cries. “I’m— I’m really—” There’s no use. Frank’s crying echoes in the tunnel. Jason gathers his old friend as fully in his arms as he can, kneeling to lean his head on top of Frank’s.

Nico feels like he’s intruding. 

Will’s hand slips into his, and he takes a deep breath. Fresh sadness fills his chest, but Will’s warm skin against his calms the shakes he caught from Frank. He watches with watery eyes as his sister floats over to the two boys huddled on the ground and drapes herself over top of them, hugging them both. Her tears are quieter— almost silent as they run down the round planes of her cheeks from her pained smile and drop into Jason’s hair. 

“It’s hard to believe you’re really here. I feel like I’m dreaming,” Hazel presses the words into the crown of Jason’s head. “I keep expecting to wake up and you’re still gone.” 

“Honestly? Me too,” Jason mutters back. “I’m sure you would have held the fort down without me, though.” He tries to make the sentence funny, but his chuckle catches in his throat and doesn’t really leave. Frank and Hazel humor him though, each forcing a little laugh out. It hurts Nico to see them all like this — but it’s temporary. A good type of sadness. Jason is back. They’re processing.

Which makes Nico think of Percy. If this is Frank’s reaction—

“Alright, okay—” Frank’s hiccups die down and he lifts his head from the cocoon he made himself. He clasps his hand against Jason’s bicep. Wordlessly, Jason helps the other boy stand and steady himself back on his feet. “I’ll be fine. Hazel needs to get you to New Rome, and I need to get new guards stationed outside.” Frank’s words sound like a mantra— a reminder that there are things he has to do, duties to serve. There will be time to be emotional later.

A Roman through and through.

Small hands come up to swipe away his tears and then reach out and take them, Hazel pulling Frank in close. She holds him for a moment. And when she lets go, he straightens up and pulls his shoulders back— perfect posture. As if nothing ever happened, except for the tell-tale blotchy red of his cheeks.

“I’ll come to Percy’s when I’m done. Good luck.” Frank kisses his girlfriend’s temple, and then turns to Jason. They hold eye contact, but eventually Frank casts his dark eyes down to the ground, unable to look any longer. 

Jason moves to step forward, one hand out— to hug him, to comfort him, to speak, Nico isn’t sure, but they never find out. Frank sinks into himself, until he’s no longer there. And in his place is a large Siamese cat. Cat Frank doesn’t spare another glance up before he turns tail and scampers away. 

Hurt stamps itself across Jason’s face. 

Gingerly, Hazel takes his outstretched right arm into both of her hands. 

“Give him time. It’s been almost a year since you’ve been gone, Jason. I think we’re all just a little… startled,” Hazel says, rubbing Jason’s arm. She looks like a painting in the dark, yellowing light of the cave— all golden hues and deep browns with that sad expression. 

Jason nods, but doesn’t stop looking in the direction Frank ran away to. 

“Nico, do you think you could shadow travel us to Percy’s place if I help you?” Hazel turns her attention to her brother. Nico and Will drift closer, hand in hand.

“Do we have to shadow travel?” Will asks. “Why can’t we walk there, like normal people?” This time, Will is definitely whining for his own sake. He’s still a little pale and clammy from their short jump earlier. He keeps most of the whining out of his voice, though. The mood doesn’t feel right to actually complain.

“I can’t risk having anyone see Jason before we’ve decided what we’re doing. Once stuff with the gods has settled and we have a plan laid out, Jason can parade around Camp Jupiter all he wants.” Hazel's words leave no room for argument. There’s a reason she’s leading Camp Jupiter, afterall. Nico has told his fair share of campers not to mistake her kindness for lack of authority.

“Makes sense. I’m sure suddenly showing back up after my own funeral would cause a stir,” Jason mumbles, still staring off into the cave. 

“You know… Percy did that once. But at his own funeral,” Will muses out loud, and that gets Jason’s attention. It gets everyone’s attention as they turn to stare at Will.

“Of course he did,” Jason breathes out, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I was shocked, either,” Hazel admits, and they share a little laugh before returning to the matter at hand. “The safest place right now is going to be in New Rome, and you just so happen to have some friends there who would love to have you crash on their couch for a few days.” Hazel’s eyes twinkle and she catches Nico’s gaze. Nico would give real life money to have been there for that conversation. Percy was probably begging the two praetors on his hands and knees to be the Jason Safety Plan. 

“I can get us there if you help me. You’ll have to steer us, since I’ve never been to their apartment, and I’ll probably need a granola bar and a nap afterwards but— I feel up for it.” Nico holds his free hand out to take Hazel’s. She grabs Jason, and Will and Jason complete the circle.

“Ready?” Nico asks his sister. He thinks of the last time they did this. All of the seven staring at him expectantly. Everyone counting on him despite the exhaustion deep in his bones. He wouldn’t have made it if Hazel didn’t lend him her strength. Now, he knows, if he were to say he couldn’t, Hazel would find a way to march them through the center of camp, no questions asked. And if he’s wrong, and he overexerts himself, Will is going to be right there waiting for him on the other side. Healing hands and gatorade at the ready. 

It’s a comforting thought to know that for once in his life, Nico is safe. He has people looking after him who can actually help if he needs it. 

“Ready.” Hazel nods, eyes closed in anticipation. And off they go.

The four of them come tumbling out of a shadow in a dark apartment complex hallway, decidedly not in Percy Jackson’s apartment-style university dorm. 

“This is us!” Hazel announces, standing in front of the door labeled 303. There are four doors in this tiny hallway, a staircase on one side and elevator on the other. Nico’s never been in dormitory housing. He was expecting something more… studious? Less like a normal apartment complex, maybe? Though, in hindsight, that’s probably dumb. It’s just housing. It’s not like they do their classes in their apartment. 

The only sign that they’re even on New Rome’s campus are the hundreds of fliers taped along the wall opposite to the apartment doors, each for a different club or event— many already passed. Nico’s eyes catch on a Mythomagic Tournament flier milliseconds before he has to close his eyes to stave off the dizziness. 

“Why didn’t you direct us inside the apartment?” Nico asks, yawning through the words. Yeah, he’s going to need that granola bar and nap soon. Will sidles up next to him to hold him upright, pushing a little bit of healing power into Nico’s body that goes a long way. At least he doesn’t feel like he has vertigo anymore. 

“Because that’s rude, Nico! It’s courteous to knock!” Hazel argues back.

“That rule doesn’t apply to Nico. Everyone knows Nico goes wherever he wants, whenever he wants, and we let him,” Jason laughs, and Nico’s face flushes. Definitely because he doesn’t feel good and not because that’s really sweet. Jason pushes his way up past Hazel, hovering in front of the door. 

He doesn’t make any further movements. 

“Nervous?” Will asks Jason, wrapping his arms around Nico’s waste under the guise of helping him stay standing. In reality, he’s kind of leaning on Nico a bit, and he almost sends them crashing to the floor. He apologizes to Nico under his breath with a laugh.

“Kind of, yeah. Like we said earlier, I wouldn’t put past Percy or Annabeth to kill me for dying.” Jason’s hand hovers over the door, poised to knock. He shifts back and forth, chews at the scar on his lip. Stalling.

“Percy's definitely going to kick your butt,” Nico confirms, words slurring a little.

“Great. You’re so encouraging, Nico,” Jason gripes back, shaking his head. It must work, though, because finally, he knocks on the door.

The door swings open unbelievably fast. As if they were waiting directly on the other side. 

And there’s Annabeth, smiling wide. She looks cozy, in her New Rome sweatshirt and matching sweatpants. And behind her, Percy is standing in jeans and a t-shirt, wide-eyed in the hallway. It looks like he was already crying before they even got there— ocean eyes stung red and nose irritated from blowing it.  

Silence. For a brief moment, everyone holds their breath.

“JASON!” The stillness snaps. Percy breaks out into a sprint and Jason pushes past Annabeth to meet him halfways. She flattens herself against the wall to avoid being mauled. Percy tackles Jason with another yell, hard, and the whole floor shakes as the two boys hit the ground. Percy laughs hysterically, pushing himself up onto his elbows to grab Jason’s chin and turn him this way and that — double checking that he’s real. 

“Percy!” Jason doesn’t even bother to hide his tears this time. They slip free, tracking down into the smile threatening to take over his face and into the scar at his temple.

“Good to see you, too, Jason,” Annabeth jokes from the door, smiling bigger than Nico has ever seen. She shuffles to the side to let everyone else in, and they all scoot into the small, generic looking living room. Except for all the blue, of course. Blue pillows, blue blankets, and a little shark plushie perched on the arm of their gray couch that Nico recognizes from their trip to Walmart.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Jason tries to tilt his head up to look at Annabeth and apologize for skipping her, but Percy won’t let him. He holds Jason’s face tight, a manic look in his eyes.

“I. Am going. To kill you, Grace!” Percy announces, incredulous. Every word gets punctuated with Percy shaking Jason’s face. “After I kiss you. And then beat the shit out of you. And then lock you in my fucking pantry so you can’t get yourself killed again—”

Jason laughs, loud and real, and it’s music to Nico’s ears.

“I get it! I get it!” Jason fits his hands over Percy’s on the sides of his face. The big grin on his face softens. “For the record, I really am sorry. I tried to get around it. I really did. I tried to Iris Message you every day for, like, three weeks.” There’s a pause, where Jason seems to gather himself, taking a deep breath. “I even tried to call your mom.” Jason’s voice cracks. Pain wells up in his bright blue eyes, nose and eyes scrunching up to try and hold the emotions in. 

Percy’s expression shatters. All the color drains from his face. 

“Three weeks? You called my mom?” Percy whispers. He pushes himself up over Jason with his arms, bodies still smushed together. Nico has never seen Percy so… rattled. His breathing is shallow, his pupils dilated into little pinpricks. He desperately searches Jason’s face for any traces of a joke or a lie, but finds nothing.

“Yeah, man. I wouldn’t have gone alone unless I didn’t have any other choice. But by the time Apollo showed up, it was too late.” The tears overflow, running past his temples and onto the linoleum floor. 

Percy drops his head into the center of Jason’s chest. There’s nothing, at first. No sniffles, no hiccups, but then Nico notices Percy’s hands are shaking. The up and down of his back with his breathing is coming too fast. He digs his hands into the floorboards too hard, nails scraping against it. 

Nico starts to move forward, to intervene before this panic attack gets further than the start, but Annabeth beats him to it of course. She kneels down by the two boys, gently putting a hand on Percy’s shoulder. He flinches away from the touch, burrowing further into Jason, whose eyes have blown wide. Jason tries to pull back, not sure what he did wrong but, again, Percy doesn’t let him move. He holds Jason tighter, the first noise leaving his throat. It’s deep and sad and nothing like his sobs from earlier— broken.