The Blonde Boys Black Eye

Nico's throat was burning, his hands blistered from scrambling over the scorching rock and fire, stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction except the way he was heading. Ahead of him lay only a dark smog. Edging his way further across the ledge he was positioned on Nico tried to make his way further towards the darkness, keeping his body pressed as close to the rock face in front of his as the heat emanating from it would allow; minor burns to his front were nothing compared to the pain he'd feel of falling in to the River Phlegethon below. Moving down the ledge Nico felt he was floating rather than moving the way he usually did. His surroundings felt sticky in his conciousness but Nico himself felt weightless.

He was still a good few yards away from a wider section of platform off of the narrow slice of rock he was currently balancing along when the first touch grazed his arm. Another to his shoulder. The next to his shin. The shifting growths, small, moving lumps at first began to become more defined the more Nico began to panic, fingers started clawing there was out of the lumps before slowly stretching to form wrists and arms, growing out of the wall to just below where the elbow would be on a normal arm.

As Nico continued to make his way closer to the platform his panic continued to grow, especially as he could feel the hands gradually starting to snag at his clothing, adjusting to their new range of movement, though he kept his emotions in check, careful not to loose his concentration in his precarious position. Soon the hands began to grip firmer to Nico, securing there hold on him with dagger like fingers. Wrists, ankles,shoulders, anything the hands could grab onto they did. Nico was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his balance and to not be pushed backwards into the fiery river below. As the arms that had a secure hold on him began to shake Nico like a rag doll he began to fight back, pulling one of his arms free from its capture so a to reach his Stygian iron sword which, up until this point had been swinging uselessly in its holster by his side. Pulling his sword free Nico used all his strength to cut some of the protruding arms from the rock face. To say the arms were made of stone Nico's sword cut through them surprisingly easily, meeting no resistance as it sliced through the grotesque limbs. Nico used his free hand to hold fast to the rock face, keeping one of the arms in a Roman handshake to prevent himself from falling. The more he fought the more insistent the arms became, grabbing him more fiercely, shaking him more roughly but the harder the arms fought to harm him the harder Nico fought back all while new limbs were swelling out of the rack face with every second that passed.

Nico was struggling to keep up with the ever increasing number of limbs, his fighting technique becoming more erratic and wild as he struggled to keep the clawing arms at bay. By chance, one of the larger arms, Nico guessed it was one of the first to form, grabbed at Nico's wrist and managed to twist his sword out of his grip. Nico allowed himself a milliseconds distraction as he watched his beloved weapon hit the waves of the Phlegethon below. Though despite the loss of his blade Nico kept fighting against the stone that held him with the remainder of his strength.

Without his sword Nico's battle became a very one sided one as the burning stone arms gradually started to over power him. As his body became swallowed by the rocks he though he could hear a voice shouting his name but the noise came and went like a whisper upon the wind. The arm Nico had been using to steady himself against the wall had been the first of his limbs to be swallowed in stone, soon followed by both of his legs, stone hands pulling themselves up to encase his legs, dragging there way up his calves and thighs, still constantly shaking him as if to try and awaken the dead from within him. The only sections of his body that were still free were his head, torso and the arm that had once held his now absent sword. That soon changed however a a large lump began to form in the rock face just below eye level. This lump, more fast growing than the rest only took a few seconds to erupt into another ghoulish arm which made a beeline straight for his throat, tightening its fingers like a vice around his neck.

Still struggling, but this time gasping for breath, Nico brought back his arm in one last ditch effort to free himself, even though he knew the effort would be wasted one he had to try, if he was going to die down in this hell hole he wasn't going to do it without putting up a fight. Swinging his arm forward with all his might he punched the arm that currently had its hand around his throat with all his might. Unlike with the attacks he had made with his sword, his hand met a hard resistance, not rock and yet not quite flesh. As his fist met with the arm the latter quickly withdrew its grasp, the shaking stopped and the rocks that encased him began to fall away, flaking off his body like skin off a snake. His sudden freedom surprised Nico and his balance had been seriously effected during his imprisonment causing him to take a step back, in an attempt to right himself, which sent him straight over the canyons edge.

Nico could feel himself falling but instead of coming into contact with the fiery waters of the Phlegethon like he had expected he came into contact with something soft and only mildly warm. Opening his eyes slowly Nico woke up to realise he was in a private room off of the infirmary floor, the one Will Solace had assigned to him earlier that day. The only light source in the room was coming from the soft silvery glow that the moon permitted through the rooms sterile blue curtains. Lying back into his pillows Nico took a couple of second to try and slow his heart rate, steadying his breathing. It was a low groaning sound that brought him out of his brief meditation and elevated his heart back to the rate he had been trying to slow it from, seeing movement stirring from the rooms floor Nico reached across to the night stand and plucked his sword from where it was propped against it, thank gods it hadn't actually been lost. Sitting up straighter in bed, sword raised to strike he only let his guard when a voice came out of the darkness, letting Nico know who his mystery guest was.

"That's some swing you got there di Angelo" Will groaned from the floor, cradling the left side of his face as he pushed himself one handed into a sitting position, resting his head against his right knee as he settled himself, his other leg laying out bent in front of him running parallel to the floor. Sitting up a little straighter in bed Nico discarded his sword so it lay on the clean crisp sheets next to his leg and reached over to turn on the light sat on the night stand. Sure enough there was Will sat in the middle of the room, on the floor a bright redness growing up around his eye and across his left cheek bone.

"Gods Will What happened!" Nico exclaimed as he scrambled out of bed to kneel on the floor next to Will, raising his hand to the medics new injury, though being very careful not to touch the other boy. Will just laughed in response, wincing slightly as he dodged around Nico's out stretched hand and prodded the newly tender flesh around his eye.

"I came in here to check on you" Will explained "You were having a nightmare, thrashing around like mad, I thought you were going to hurt yourself! I tried to wake you, shook your shoulder, called your name none of it was working" Will said sincerity filling his eyes "It was my own faulty really, I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been and then suddenly BAM! Black eye for Will"Nico hung his head in shame but Will was grinning up at him as if it were the best thing to happen to him all week (and considering the week the pair of them had had it probably was).

"Hey look don't worry about it" Will muttered, seriousness now clouding his tone "A quick healing chant in the morning and this whole things fixed" Will gave a small half smile as he finished speaking and gave Nico a gentle fist bump to the shoulder a sign to show that Will held no hard feelings over what had happened between them. Making his way to his feet Will rested his tanned hands against the black fabric of Nico's shirt sleeves, supporting him as Nico too got to his feet. "Lets get you back to bed then" Will mumbled, only half paying attention to his words as he concentrated on keeping Nico on balance, the latter now weaker than he had been thanks to his bout of nightmares. Nico was thankful he didn't have to face Will as his face was radish red red, a contrast to his usually pale complexion.

Once Nico was settled back in his bed Will turned to leave in order to give Nico some more peace so he could rest, though Nico made no effort to switch off the small light shining softly next to him. He didn't know what it was about the son of Apollo but Nico trusted him. Despite this he still didn't really want know to know the subjects of his nightmares, though Nico's brain had other ideas.

"It was Tartarus" Nico mumbled, his words barely audible to Will across the room "I dreamed..,. I was back in Tartarus" Will froze at Nico's words, his hand resting on the door frame, the angle of his head, tilted so Nico was viewing him in profile, was the only indication he had heard what Nico had said. A silence grew between them, broken by Will a few moments later, once he had had time to process Nico's words.

"You were down there alone" Will said, his words just as soft and quiet as Nico's had been. It wasn't a question but he still nodded his head in response. "Everyone thinks Percy and Annabeth are so brave for going through it" Will continued "And they are don't get me wrong they are, most of us here wouldn't have survived a tenth of what they have, but you were down there alone. They had each other but you..." Will paused, his cheeks turning a very faint rose colour, just barely visible to Nico in the dim light. "I can't imagine what you went through but... If you need someone to talk to or someone to listen... you know where to find me."

This time it was Nico's turn blush, he let his chin drop to his chest in an attempt to hide his face. "Thanks Will" Nico all but whispered into his chest. As Will turned once more to leave the room Will Nico called out "Will" to stop him from leaving too far before continuing in an awkward tone. "Do you... Do you mind not telling anyone about this? About the nightmares? Jason he's... a bit over protective and Reyna..." he trailed off, hoping Will had gotten the point he was trying to make. Turning back to face Nico, Will gave him a soft smile. "Don't worry di Angelo your secrets safe with me. "Doctor/Patient confidentiality and all that" All seriousness and tension gone from the room at Will's last statement and he gave Nico a swift wink before finally turning round and exiting the room.

Sighing with exhaustion Nico flopped back on his pillows, sleep finally over taking him once more.


A/N: So this is a longer chapter than what I'm used to writing and I did debate splitting it but thought it better like this. Solangelo may be slow to get here but I promise it will arrive as soon as the story lets it, it will be here. Please review with what you think about the story (and about the chapter length) and hopefully chapter two will be up soon