Yet another tumblr drabble, but this is the last one. Prompted by imbuingoctave.
Slash optional in this one. Enjoy!
It had been five minutes since Jason barged into the room, calling, "Hey, Leo, could you do something for me?"
Five minutes.
It was a new record for absolutely everything to go horribly wrong.
"Last time I ask you for a favour!" Jason laughed, staring around the room incredulously. Leo had managed to make three pottery wheels break in half; two spin way too fast, making clay fly everywhere; and one explode quite violently.
"Are you kidding?" Leo said. "This one's perfect." He stomped his foot on the pedal.
It may have seemed so at first glance. The seventh pottery wheel seemed docile as of yet, and it wasn't making any strange sounds. The lump of brown clay sat regally in the centre, spinning idly in place.
"No, Leo," Jason said, after he'd managed to calm himself down. "This one's too slow."
Leo let out a small scream of frustration. "Too slow, too fast, what do you want from me?"
Jason smiled apologetically at him. It seemed that pottery wheels were the only things that Leo couldn't get to work, and it was rather amusing to watch. Jason had left him alone to figure out how to use one for five minutes. It was his own bad judgement, really.
Jason was only half-listening to Leo's tirade as he angrily threw small objects from his magical toolbelt onto the machine. It was a good thing he knew how to tune out his friend, because that was how he noticed a certain dark-haired boy standing in the corner of the room, looking decidedly less glum than was usual. In fact, he looked rather… amused.
Jason raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Nico!" he called. What was Nico doing in the arts and crafts room? And more importantly, when did he get here? Had he been there the whole time?
For a second, the boy in the corner looked much like a deer in the headlights, ready to bolt off at any second. But then Leo turned around to see their visitor, and Nico had no choice but to refrain from shadow-travelling away; one person he could avoid, but two would be quite rude of him. He slowly shuffled around the room, keeping close to the walls.
Leo was entirely unfazed by the newly announced presence, and he went on blabbering to Jason.
Jason still wasn't listening. "Hey, Nico, you know anything about pottery wheels?"
Nico looked away from the paintings on the walls. "Yeah, maybe. Why?"
Jason motioned him over. "We need help."
"You need help," Leo corrected. "My pottery wheel is perfect."
Nico walked over. "Yours is too slow," he noticed immediately, and instantly seemed to regret having said it as Leo opened his mouth to retaliate.
"It is the most perfect pottery wheel you will ever lay eyes upon, death boy."
Nico gave the smallest of smiles, quite relieved that no one was angry. "Well, you may still want to speed it up."
"And how would I go about doing that, O Great Artisan Lord?" Leo scoffed, crossing his arms.
The other boy's eyes were glittering with… something a little frightening, but surprisingly lively. "There's a switch to control the maximum speed at the back. Yours appears to be on the slowest setting."
The other two went to look, and sure enough, there was a clearly-marked speed control.
"Leo!" Jason exclaimed. "How did you miss that?"
Leo looked rather affronted for a moment, before cupping a hand to his ear and putting on an innocent face. "Oh? Oh? What's that? Oh, someone's calling me. I gotta go. Bye!" And then he proceeded to sprint out of the building.
Nico watched him go with that same look of amusement, but when Jason smiled at him he immediately stopped. Jason shrugged mentally, sitting down at his machine.
"Okay," he said, flipping the switch to a more appropriate setting. "Okay." A few more 'okay's later, and he realized he had no idea what he was doing. He frowned at the spinning lump of clay.
"Hey, Nico—"
"Do you need help?" It didn't sound as condescending as he was expecting. Jason was almost relieved when he answered.
"Yeah. Please."
Nico dragged over another machine and sat down next to Jason. He started up his wheel with surprisingly practised hands, and in seconds his lump of clay was a perfect semi-sphere on the plate. It wasn't a particularly impressive feat,
Jason stared at his hands. "How did you—? Do you do pottery often?"
Nico frowned at him, looking rather bemused, but he didn't answer (however, Jason noticed he'd turned very slightly pink). Nico reached over to gently grab each of Jason's hands, cupping them around his lump of clay.
"First lesson; the Rounded Blob."
Jason frowned. "'The Rounded Blob'?"
"Shut up," Nico told him, guiding Jason's foot to the pedal. "Now mold it into a Rounded Blob."
After a few disasters and Rounded Blobs that ended up accidentally smashed under Jason's big hands, he finally had something that looked a bit like Nico's perfect semi-sphere spinning under his hands.
Nico looked a little distraught. "You're… not very good at this."
Jason grinned at him.
"That's… that's okay, though," Nico continued, floundering. "I mean… that was… the easiest part… but now you've had practice. Now we can move on to the next step—wait, wait, I forgot to ask, what are you trying to make, exactly?"
Jason shrugged. "A mug?"
Nico nodded to himself. "Okay. That's not too hard. Now we have to do the Incomplete Doughnut."
Jason smiled to himself; it was clear that Nico was making up the names on the spot, but he quite liked them. "And that is…?"
"Here, I'll show you." Nico proceeded to press a finger into the top of his own Rounded Blob, pushing the clay apart until there was a nice round hole in the middle of his mound. It did indeed look like a doughnut.
Jason tried to concentrate as Nico guided his fingers to his own Rounded Blob, but he was distracted by how Nico was acting. Normally so closed off, it was incredible to see how amiable he became when he worked with the clay. It was clear that he was quite passionate about his art, even if he would probably deny it anywhere else.
After a few more problems—thankfully much smaller this time—and going through steps Wet Caresse through Pinchy Fingers, Jason had a rather impressive looking handle-less mug in front of him.
And then Nico showed him how to shape the handle and attach it, and he couldn't help being mesmerized by the boy's pale fingers as they easily formed wonderful structures out of wet clay.
Then came the painting stage. Before they started, Nico had looked at him for about a minute with an unreadable expression before declaring that he would paint it later. He emotionlessly showed Jason how to use the giant oven thing that Nico called a kiln, and he left, leaving his unfinished creation on a shelf by the door.
Jason frowned to himself, and looked down at his mug. Even though he hadn't made it overtly obvious, he could tell that something was bothering Nico.
A smile split open his face as he got an idea.
He picked up a brush and started painting the clay.
Jason got his mug back around half a week later when it was emptied of all its now-cooked contents.
He was only a little surprised when Nico materialized in the doorway. The other boy clearly didn't expect him to be there, and for a second he looked just about ready to leave, as he often did, but he stepped into the room.
"Hi, Jason," he said in a flat voice, eyes flickering to the table loaded with colourful art pieces.
"Hey—" Jason started, but by then Nico had already grabbed something from the table and left the facility. "—Nico," he finished lamely to himself, picking up his mug.
What's up with Nico? he wondered idly, before inspecting how the colours looked on his finished piece.
He smiled to himself.
It was perfect.
It took close to another week of Jason hovering in the arts and crafts room for Nico to reappear. He arrived, as was his fashion, entirely silently, with only a slight cold breeze to announce his presence as he opened the door.
"Nico!" Jason said happily. "I was starting to think you'd never come back. I wanted you to see my mug, to see how it all ended up."
Nico's eyes lit up for a second with something like hope before he deliberately hardened them. He walked up to Jason, taking the purple mug from his outstretched hands.
"I couldn't have done it without you," Jason felt the need to add as Nico inspected his handiwork. It wasn't entirely purple, Nico soon realized: it was decorated with a drawing of him and Jason, both smiling. Above their heads were the words Good morning, little ghost boy! in bright, cheery yellow.
Nico didn't know what to feel.
"Why 'good morning'?" he found himself asking, not looking up from the mug.
"Well, I figured you would use it in the mornings, so," Jason explained, only a little bit awkward about it.
At this Nico looked up into his face. "You're giving it to me?"
Jason's heart hurt at how surprised he sounded, as though it was such a novelty that someone would offer him a gift.
But he smiled through the pain he felt for this poor boy. "Well, yeah."
Nico frowned suspiciously. Jason wanted to wipe the expression of his face. "Why?"
Jason took a deep breath. This was the moment he'd been waiting for. "Happy birthday!"
Nico looked positively befuddled. "It's not my birthday."
Jason smiled at him. "No, it's in two months. I didn't want to wait that long. I just wanted to tell you I'm happy you were born."
Nico's eyebrows twitched. "You—" He looked down at the mug. "Why?" he repeated.
Jason took a risk, placing a hand on Nico's shoulder. The other boy didn't flinch away, so he kept it there. "Nico, you don't have to be so scared of getting close to people. I'm your friend. And I'm not going anywhere."
Nico still looked skeptical and confused, but something melted in his frigid gaze and his eyes softened. "I…. Thank you, Jason."
Jason smiled at him, peering into Nico dark eyes. "Don't be sad, little ghost boy."
Nico let out something between a laugh and a sob, gaze dropping to the mug in his hands. He set it down on a table and, after a moment of hesitation, threw his arms around Jason, much to the older boy's surprise.
The hug was short but meaningful, and it left Jason with a warm feeling in his chest and a little bit of smarting in his eyes.
This was Nico di Angelo; this was a boy who did not give many hugs.
And then the son of Hades was gone, having quickly released Jason and grabbing the mug that was now his, then proceeding to run for all he was worth out of the room.
Jason smiled to himself. Nico was still stuck in his shell of hurt and anger, but this was a significant change. This was a good change.
When Jason looked back at the table beside him, there was a beautiful sculpture sitting there: a twisted cylindrical shape in many shades of blue, with carefully painted eagles and little bolts of lightning carved intricately into its surface. Upon closer inspection, it was recognizable as being none other than the mug Nico had made.
Jason reverently touched the surface of Nico's—well, his, now, he supposed—mug.
Yes, this was definitely a good change.
A few weeks later, as Jason sat regally on a stool next to Leo, sipping from his cyclone-mug, Leo asked the question he'd wanted to since the whole thing began.
"Did you really go through all that trouble to make Nico a mug?"
Jason smiled into his drink. "Yes, Leo."
"Why? And why did you let him help you if it was for him anyway?"
Jason was watching a certain dark-haired boy as he walked towards them, purple mug held proudly in one pale hand.
"He needed to understand that he's important."
Leo got no further information on the matter out of him that day. No other information was relevant.
Yay, fluff and messy endings... my specialty.
Thank you for reading!