Chapter 1
Nico's POV
Nico never knew how nice it could feel to have friends. Knowing that there is someone you could talk to if things got bad, or if you just want to talk. And people were much better company than ghosts or Jules-Albert, his zombie chuffer. That's a long story.
Nico had made a few friends since the war with Gaea. Jason, who claimed they were best friends if not 'bros', Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Reyna (who was practically his sister at this point), Couch Hedge, Leo and Will. Maybe even more!
Nico spent his days at camp Half Blood chilling with Jason, gossiping with Piper, visiting Couch, Mellie and Chuck and hanging with Will. When Hazel and Reyna came to visit he'd train or just chat with them. He'd been attending camp events like capture the flag and even the camp fire. It was fun to have people want you around. Heck, it was even nice to want people around.
To conclude Nico's life was sort of good, which weirded Nico out. Who would've thought that just by saying 'I'm going to stay and try this friends thing.' Nico's life would go so fun.
"Earth to Nico," Will waved a hand in front of Nico's face. "Maybe not earth. I mean, we've just finished the war with the earth. Hmm. I don't know. Nico, are you with me?"
"Of course I'm with you, you idiot." Nico rolled his eyes at the older boy. Will Solace reminded Nico of a surfer, sort of like his father, Apollo. He had a golden tanned surfers body, shaggy sun-kissed hair and an athletic build. He was tall for a fifteen year old, being a couple of inches taller than Nico, which really annoyed the son of Hades.
"You spaced out!" Will objected, taking a step back from Nico. Since Will had given Nico the 'all clear' to start using his underworld-y powers (as he called it), Will had been a bit more careful around the son of Hades after a incidence involving several femurs, a skull and a rather sore foot.
"I was thinking." Nico told the older boy. "Have you ever tried using a sword?" Will shook his head.
"I'm more of a archery person, myself." Will explained. "I'm a little clumsy with sword. Learnt that the hard way. Accidentally ran a girl though with a long sword. On the upside that's when I found out about my healing abilities." Nico grinned slightly. Will was such a dork.
"Can I teach you?" Nico asked. Will looked at him suspiciously.
"Do you want to be run through with a long sword?" He asked. Nico rolled his eyes and shook his head, causing his dark hair to fall in front of his eyes. "Then why?"
"I want to." Nico answered. "You have the body for a swordsman, so why not?"
"So, you've been looking at my body?" Will asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
"W-what?!" Nico stuttered. He could feel himself blush like mad. Damn his pale skin! "I j-just-"
"Okay." Will smiled.
"Okay what?" Nico asked, hoping he wasn't as red as he felt.
"Okay you can teach me how to sword fight." Will told him. "Although this is going to end badly for you. I really suck with a sword."
"I'm sure I can handle it, Solace." Nico chuckled.
When Will said he sucked at sword fighting, he didn't say the he sucked more than the girls in the Aphrodite cabin, which the exception of Piper of course. They should make a spectrum of suckiness and even after totally sucky, it would say Will! Gods of Olympus he sucked.
They went to the training area at six in the morning, seeing as Will was up before sunrise almost everyday and Nico could barely sleep without the nightmares from Tartarus coming back to haunt him. Anyway, Nico had swapped his usual Stygian Iron sword for a normal one because Will was a beginner and he didn't want to scare Will. After going through now to stand and hold the sword Nico tried going through the basics, but it was harder than Nico though. Nico was self taught, so almost everything he learnt contradicted everything Percy had tried to teach Will when he has lessons.
It took almost three hours before Nico gave up. Will was unteachable. He could never use a sword. Or at least Nico would never be able to teach Will to use a sword. Heck, Nico didn't think Ares could teach Will to use a sword. Yes, he sucked that much.
"I told you I sucked." Will laughed as Nico poured a little water on his head to cool him down.
"I thought you were being modest." Nico said. "Like when a boy says 'I'm not an athlete' or a girl says 'I'm not pretty' in movies."
"Well I was being serious." Will giggled. Did boys 'giggle'? "For once in my life."
"How can a person suck that much?" Nico asked. Will shrugged. "Hay, can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Will nodded. Nico swallowed hard.
"Jason and Piper are going for a picnic tomorrow and they invited me." Nico explained to the son of Apollo. "Usually when we hang out I end up being a third wheel. So, want to join me?"
"Sounds like your asking me out on a date, di Angelo." Will grinned. Nico could feel himself blush, but before he could stutter a response, Will talked again. "I'm kidding. Sure, why not? I haven't had a day out of camp in ages."
"Why did you bring your sword, Nico?" Jason asked the younger boy as they walked up the green hill to what Piper called the 'perfect spot for a picnic'.
"Just in case." Nico told the son of Jupiter. Jason was what most people called 'hella hot' or whatever it was. He looked like a roman statue with blonde military cropped hair, a small scar on top of his lip from trying to eat a stapler and electric blue eyes. He was athletic and fit, but Nico wouldn't say he was 'hot'. Maybe attractive, but not hot. He wore his favourite hoodie with the superman logo on the front (he thought it was ironic) with baggy jeans and comfy trainers.
"He's pretty smart." Piper agreed. "We should've brought weapons. Remember what happened the first time we came here?"
"We got attacked by a stupid Telekhine." Jason muttered. His girlfriend smiled at him before taking his hand. Piper was gorgeous, even Nico knew that. She had seemingly flawless dark tanned skin, chocolate brown hair that was cut choppy and uneven with thin strands braided on either side of her hair and kaleidoscope coloured eyes. She wore a pair of bright blue skinny jeans, a baggy white jumper with an Aztec type design on the front and silver sandals.
"I thought you guys would be used to being attacked by now." Will said. "Seeing as you've faced so many different monsters and such." He wore a simple teal t-shirt with blue shorts and flip flops, just like always. Nico didn't know he was staring until Will looked at him and smiled. Then Nico turned his head quickly and prayed to the gods that he wasn't blushing.
"Your never used to being attacked." Piper explained. "Its always terrifying and disorientating, but you have to act fast. You can always rely on your battle reflexes really, unless they're crap, then you can't."
"Well my battle reflexes are next to nothing," Will chuckled. "But my healing abilities are up to scratch, so that balances out."
"Nico told me you were good with a bow and could do a really high pitch whistle thing." Jason asked. Nico glared at him, but he just shrugged.
"Does Nico often talk about me?" Will asked. Nico looked at his feet, defiantly blushing. "I'm an alright archer and I can do audiokinesis, which is the sharp whistle-like sound that can temporarily stun people, but my speciality certainly lies with healing."
"That cool!" Piper told him. Will shook his head and chuckled.
"Not compared to you guys." He said. "You can tell people what to do and they'll do it, Jason can fly and summon lightning and Nico can do so many underworld-y things and hypnokinesis."
"Yeah," Nico agreed. Being complimented like this made him feel awkward, so the only thing to do was argue back. "But I lack in sword skill due to me using my powers so often and we've all seen how that's working out for me." Nico was only just getting over almost fading away into the shadows from overuse of his underworld-y powers.
"True," Will argued back. He wasn't supposed to do that! Why was he doing that? "But you have so much will power, being able to survive Tartarus on your own. And amazing endurance according to Reyna. She said you endured so much physical and mental pain."
"True," Nico answered. "But my fatal flaw is holding grudges."
"You're fluent in Italian." Will said after a few moment. Nico hadn't noticed that they'd stopped on top of the hill and Jason and Piper had started eating they're sandwiches.
"Sono nato in Italia. Certo che sono fluenti nella lingua. Qual è il punto?" Nico said, showing off. Will tilted his head like a confused puppy. "I was born in Italy. Of course I'm fluent in the language. What's your point?"
"I don't know." Will admitted. "I thought we were arguing over how awesome you are."
"They're like an old married couple." Piper said, probably louder than she wanted to.
"Shut up, Piper." Nico said, flopping down onto the floor beside her.
"Jason!" Nico called out, sword extended. "Distract it!" Why hadn't anyone else brought weapons? Now Nico had to fight the huge cyclopes himself. Of course he could, but he wanted to have a day off. Will, under Nico's orders, had taken Piper to the edge of the forest. Nico knew that she could help, but it was easier for Nico to concentrate on what one other person was doing. Jason flew around the cyclopes face, shouting random insults, throwing leaves in its face. Doing anything to distract it. Nico charged at the monster. He managed to get a few good hits in, making golden inchor flow out of it, before the cycolpes flung Jason out of the air, followed by Nico. Jason landed on their picnic basket. He seemed fine, well, better than Nico. The son of Hades landed stomach first onto his sword. He got up, holding his side, and glared at the cyclopes. It moved towards him with a smug grin on his face. Nico slammed one of his hands against the floor and said "Bye, a-hole." Then a pit of hellfire opened up from underneath the cyclopes. Before it could even look underneath it, it was swallowed up by the pit. Nico closed it and laid back, allowing himself to concentrate completely on the pain that rushed through his abdomen.
"Nico?" Jason asked. He was clearly winded, Nico could hear that from his voice. "Nico?" Nico listened as footstep ran forward.
"Jason," Piper's voice ran out through the field. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Jason replied. "Probably bruised."
"Nico?" Will asked. Nico could hear footsteps running eagerly toward him. Suddenly the figure of Will was over him. "What's wrong?" Instead of answering with a sarcastic comment like he usually would he just lifted up the arm covering his wound. Will took a sharp breath in and Nico knew it was as bad as it felt. "Did you fall on your sword?" Will asked, sounding panicky.
"Maybe…" Nico said weakly.
"You idiot." The image of Will was going blurry. Will, without any warning, put his hands on Nico's wound. It hurt like a bitch, but Nico didn't have any energy to complain or even groan in pain. "Someone give me a song to sing. Quick. I'm blanking." Nico could almost feel the panicking coming off the three demigods.
"Tu sei il mio sole, la mia unica sole." Nico sung weakly. He didn't know why he sung it, or even if anyone knew what the song was, but he sung it. Sort of.
"You make me happy, when skies are grey." Will sung. He wasn't the best singer, not by a long shot, but it seemed to work. Nico could feel Will's hands warming up on his stomach.
"Non saprete mai, cara."
"How much I love you."
"Si prega di non prendere"
"My sunshine."
"Via."
"Away." With the last word, which they sung together, the pain began to ease away. It wasn't completely gone, but it was gone enough for Nico to sit up.
"I didn't know you could sing." Piper said. Her eyes were full of tears. Nico didn't know if it was the singing or him almost dying, but he didn't care.
"I can't." Nico answered.
