The whole crew was running low on enthusiasm. Especially Hazel's sister-he seemed to just be a literal storm cloud...and well,
to be honest, at first Nico had been pretty intimidating, and when they were just out on deck, Nico directing him where to go, Leo had taken his best shot at chalking up a conversation-discovering a few things he never thought would be inside the son of hades.
"So, how'd find out you were a demigod?" Leo had figured it was a rather safe topic, figuring he'd just give be given a short answer.
"I had gotten picked up by Percy, he, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover were looking for unclaimed demigods." Nico glanced over at Leo, he gave him a slight nod, as if to encourage Nico to go on.
"We ran into Artemis' huntresses..." He voice wavered, as if just saying the goddess' name brought back a bad memory. "My sister ended up joining her." A part in the back of Leo's mind wondered about Thalia and it felt weird to think of her before she was a huntress, afterall it was the only way he had ever seen her. Back on track, Leo nodded along, "I'm sorry."
Nico's eyes seemed to have some odd spark or recognition, he couldn't tell which, "You've lost somebody too?"
Leo nodded again, shying slowly away from the conversation, afraid of questions being asked-he wasn't exactly an emotional and or open guy.
Luckily Nico seemed to drop it and change the subject, a rather odd one at that, "I used to play this card game when I was younger, before...everything." A weird smirk came across Nico's face, as if he was trying hard to remember being happy but just couldn't, it was one of the saddest things Leo had ever seen, "...And my sister, Bianca, would always tease me for it-but we were brother and sister since, nevermind-the point is that you should let go every now and then."
He stared down Leo, like a parent telling a child something, "Percy told me that it's okay to be a kid again every once and a while. I think about that a lot because us demigods are never expected to make it past sixteen so we grow up so fast and...not everything's your fault. So much in placed in fate's hands-all you can do is hope that they're kind to you."
Leo swallowed, the boy standing in front of him may have been younger, but he was wiser and Leo felt as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He wasn't quite sure what did it, but he enjoyed it for a few minutes-while it was a rather grim look on things, Nico was right. All they had left was hope, and that's what Leo had to have the most of if they were going to make it.
They stood there. Just thinking on the deck next to each other, enjoying the light breeze that seemed to be a calming break in the forecast. Throughout the afternoon the odd pair had exchanged nearly every fact about each other. From Nico's weird quirk of holding his breath when passing a graveyard, to Leo's past in the foster home.
A sensation ran through Leo when Nico had laughed at one of his jokes, the ones that most people would roll their eyes at, it was a sense of belonging. While Leo had Piper, Jason, and his siblings at camp, he never clicked with any of his friends like this.
Maybe he wouldn't end up being the "7th Wheel" after all.