Nico's life sucked.
Simple as that. Ever since he got out of tartarus, Nico's life had been worse than hell, as ironic as that is.
It was already bad enough after he lost his sister/best friend Bianca. Now, being the son of Hades, everyone looked at him weird, It didn't matter where he went, Camp Half Blood or Camp Jupiter, campers avoided him like the plague.
It wasn't their fault though, Nico gave off an aura of death. And it did not help when he dressed in dark colors, that matched his raven black hair. Or that he had skin that had gotten paler over the years, the very skin that clung to his bones giving Nico a almost ghostly appearance.
Although Nico had played a major part in both wars, people hated him. Most animals hated him, even his father Hades, seemed to hate Nico. And the saddest part of all of this is that, none of them hated Nico more than himself.
After his little run-in with cupid, Nico could not be filled with more self loathing. He hated that he liked boys. He hated that he had to like Percy. Nico hated that he still was in live with Will Solace. Nico hated that Jason, one of his only friends knew about his sexuality, and he hated cupid for forcing this out, he hated cupid the most.
So, yeah that was shit, but worst of all were Nico's night terrors. Nico would suddenly awake with his heart beating fast from the persistent fear or terror that occurred every night. Nico was usually screaming, sweating, and/or panicking for his weapon. The sheets would be torn and many claw marks would appear on his bed posts. Nico could never explain what happened. He usually had no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, he just had a vague sense of frightening images. The night terrors weren't like Annabeth's or Percy's. They just needed each other to fall asleep, and they could always calm eachother down. Nobody could get Nico to awake from his nightmare or help him relax. Tartarus loved to torture Nico, every time he closed his eyes, his worst memories resurfaced and taunted him. Most nights, Nico didn't sleep because they got so bad. He was sleep deprived and didn't eat much, this put him in a bad mood, so most ignored/avoided him. But it didn't matter, Nico didn't "need" anybody.
All except one. Will Solace son of apollo and one of the doctors at Camp. He seemed to think Nico was sick all the time, which seemed odd to Nico, because normally when you are sick you act different, but Nico acted like this all the time. So he never quite got what was wrong.
Will had many diagnoses theories for Nico, night terrors ( he was right about that one,) depression, denial, over-extent of powers, self harm, loneliness, teenage hormones. Will was pretty close with most of them. Infact, Will was usually the first and only one to notice if Nico ever acted different. Even when Nico was dismissed from the infirmary, Will would always check up on Nico to see how he was doing.
Nico hadn't given much thought to this because well, why would anyone want to be his friend, let alone something more? No, Will was just being nice, like he is to everyone. He probably hates Nico more than anyone at camp. Still, Nico had to fantasize about something more.
So against his better judgement, Nico opened up. (Hey what's the worst that could happen?) And got a little closer with the son of Apollo. And for now, things were great whenever the two were together.
"Hey death breath!" Will greeted as he was walking down the hill from the infirmary. He was still wearing his light blue scrubs that Nico found so hot on him.
"Shut up Solace." Nico grunted at the bright colored boy. Nico was wearing his usual get-up. Skinny jeans with a black skull tee shirt. He wasn't wearing his aviator jacket because, well, it was just too darn hot outside, even for the little emo scum.
"Make me." The sun boy challenged. As always, his playful blue eyes startled Nico, causing a blush to creep up from his neck to consume his face.
"Whatever." Nico scuffed, brushing his hair to the side. He shifted his eyes to the ground to hide his face. Seriously, how did Will not despise his very being?
"Wanna grab some lunch with me before I have to get back to the infirmary?" Will questioned. He always asked Nico if he wanted to do stuff. Probably trying to get Nico to embarrass himself, seeing as that's so easy. But really, how does someone so smart not know when a kid just wants to be left alone?
"I'm not hungry." Nico replied.
"Have you eaten today?" Will asked. Yet another question. That is another thing that annoyed Nico, how he was always asking about Nico's well being. He was standing and breathing wasn't he?! His sister and mother used to ask him these questions all the time too. But Will's were more annoying. Stuff like, "Did you eat?" and "How did you sleep" and "have you passed out today?" and " Have you almost died today?" Like what do you care?
"No, haven't been hungry." Nico replied blantly.
"C'mon Di Angelo, you have to eat. Doctor's orders." Yet, another thing Nico hated. How in Hades was Nico supposed to refuse "Doctor's orders." Especially when followed with the little sad puppy face Will pulls. It just makes Nico's heart melt.
He just sighed and Will grabbed Nico's arm and dragged him to the dining pavilion. Nico's arm felt like a hundred volts of electricity just zapped through. Hey, maybe it's not so bad, ya know, having a friend.