Chapter Text
“Let’s get this over with,” Nico looked into the blue eyes of the boy in front of him, meeting them with the unblinking stare that usually kept people from approaching him more than once. “No, I’m not blind. No, I don’t have a concussion. Yes, I was born like this. And no, I can’t see the future or the past or anything besides what’s right in front of me. Which, at the moment, is less than pleasant.”
The grin the boy had been aiming at Nico since tapping him on the shoulder slowly dropped, but he didn’t otherwise react to the prepared spiel. Nico was impressed. Most people would have turned tail and run by now, if they even stuck around long enough to hear the monologue after seeing Nico’s eyes — which were a dark, reflective black from corner to corner, no whites, pupils or irises to be seen.
“Um, I was just going to ask if this seat is taken.”
Nico tried to hide his surprise, not only that this boy was acting entirely unphased by Nico's appearance, but also that he seemed to be asking to sit next to him. That was not usually how these interactions played out. In fact, Nico wasn’t sure if this had ever happened before.
“Uh, no. No, it’s not,” Nico said, after a beat too long.
“Great. Thanks,” the boy replied, with a raised eyebrow and a frown. Ah, there it was. The disgusted look Nico was used to. He waited for the boy to sit or to change his mind, but instead he just looked into Nico’s eyes for a moment longer before leaning over and picking the chair up. Nico tried not to be disappointed as he watched the boy carry the chair over to the other side of the room, where he realized two other students had been watching the interaction from the end of a full row of seats.
He watched the back of the blue-eyed boy’s head, which was covered in bouncing blonde curls, as he set the chair down next to the girl on the end and leaned over to whisper to her and the boy sitting next to her, both of whom immediately looked over their shoulders again to not-so-subtly stare at Nico. He would have stared back, to see if they were any more squeamish than their friend, but his attention was called to the front of the room by a large bearded man wearing a purple leopard print suit who stood and loudly cleared his throat.
“New students! If I could have your attention please,” the room quieted down as everyone turned to look at the man, who was tapping his foot impatiently. “Welcome to Schist University. I am your headmaster, Dr. Dionysis. I hope you never need me. The people seated behind me are obviously the faculty, please come to them with any questions or concerns, because I probably don’t care.”
Nico scanned the professors, recognizing a few who had attended some of his father's campaign events last year, including a centaur who Nico remembered had approached his dad on a few different occasions to try and talk to him about some policy he was concerned about. The centaur, whose name Nico couldn’t remember, stood behind the rest of the professors. He appeared to be the only non-human who taught at the school.
A thin, pale man — who Nico didn’t recognize — was also standing, but he was in front of the rest of the faculty, immediately to the right of Dionysis. This man also had a beard, but unlike Dionysis’ — which was dark, curly and looked like it hadn’t been brushed in a couple hundred years — his was gray, short, and pointed like a spear blade. Nico met the man’s silver eyes, which he realized with a start were staring directly at him.
“We also have several older students who have volunteered to get you orientated,” the headmaster continued, gesturing to the student mentors seated in the front row. “So, please feel free to bother them, and not me. Thank you.”
Dionysis sat down and pulled a glass of something clear that Nico suspected was not water out of seemingly nowhere, closing his eyes and already tuning out the room around him as he took a sip. The pale man did not sit, instead turning to walk slowly around the periphery of the room as the students all got out of their seats. Although the man clearly wasn’t looking at him anymore, Nico couldn’t shake the feeling that the stranger was watching him.
He tried to push his paranoia aside as he made his way toward the front of the room, where the student mentors had spread themselves out, each holding a sign that indicated which freshmen they’d be in charge of for orientation. Nico waved at his sister, Bianca, who he was disappointed to see would be leading the students with last names starting with P through S. She smiled back at him, and used her chin to point towards a tall blonde girl holding a sign that said A through D . Nico smiled in gratitude then headed in the blonde girl’s direction, ducking his head as he pushed his way through the crowd.
“Hi there! My name’s— oh,” the girl had started talking as Nico approached, but she cut herself off when he looked up and met her eyes. She was only caught off guard briefly, it seemed, because a moment later she was smiling at him again and gesturing for him to join the rest of the group that had gathered around her. “Sorry, my name’s Annabeth. You must be Nico. Your Bianca’s brother, right? She mentioned you were starting this year.”
“What gave me away?” Nico crossed his arms as he looked at the girl, silently challenging her to say something about his eyes. He knew he looked quite a bit like his sister, but people seldom pointed it out and he doubted that’s what Annabeth had noticed about him. The folks back home in Styx could hardly be bothered to look away from Nico's eyes or Bianca’s wheelchair long enough to notice they had the same nose and cheekbones, and Nico didn't think here would be any different. Bianca had probably warned her friends about Nico, so everyone at school could recognize him just like everyone at home did, as the boy with those eyes .
The girl met his stare with a raised eyebrow.
“I have a list, di Angelo, and you’re the last one here.”
Nico blinked. He opened his mouth to reply — whether to apologize or snark back, he wasn’t sure yet — but stopped when he heard a familiar voice being raised on the other side of the room.
“Seriously, stop it! You’re not helping. Let go of me!”
Nico whipped around. It took him a moment to spot Bianca in the crowd, but eventually his eyes landed on the green beanie she was wearing, which matched the fake vines she’d used to decorate the handles of her wheelchair. The vines were meant to deter people from grabbing the chair without her permission, but they evidently weren’t working. Someone tall and blonde was pushing her toward the exit of the room, with the rest of her tour group following behind.
“Don’t even worry about it,” her assailant was saying, completely ignoring Bianca’s cries of protest. “Just let me know where we’re going and I can definitely help get you around. You know, I’m planning to study healing magic while I’m here. Maybe in a few years—”
Nico stopped listening as he felt a familiar cold sensation racing through his veins, and he knew the temperature in the room had dropped. His vision darkened as the air around him responded to his sudden anger. The lights in the domed ceiling above him flickered, and the shadows surrounding him lengthened to cover the floor. He reached through the darkness and wrapped his hand around the hilt of a sword that was hanging from the wall in a corner he shouldn’t have been able to reach from where he was standing.
He stepped into the shadows, and then he was staring again into bright blue eyes.
“Don’t touch her.”