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Nico stood in the shade of Thalia's pine tree ready to disappear at any moment. The Athena Parthenos glared down at him disapprovingly. As though she could sense his fading courage. He was down the hill in the strawberry field shining like the sun itself. Not that that was surprising since his father was the sun god. Nico took a deep steadying breath trying to steal himself to step out into the sun. He took a shuffle step out of the shadows and caught a glint of blond hair, heard his laugh and immediately retreated to the shadows.
You banter all the time! Jason had argued as he tried to coax Nico into asking Will to be his partner for the upcoming scavenger hunt. It was different, Nico complained, Will usually initiated any time spend together. He was constantly asking Nico to tag along with his siblings for various activities. From canoeing in the lake to archery lessons. Neither of which Nico was particularly interested in on his own. He went most of the time simply because Will was there. Which was corny but Nico couldn't seem to make himself care about that too much. Still it was hard to let his guard down around the rest of the Apollo cabin. Even though he was much more comfortable being at camp his internal sense of danger recoiled at too much human contact. Especially when the rest of the Apollo cabin was not always keen to have him along. They never complained though, which Nico figured was probably Will's doing. It was just the occasional sidelong glance, or having them shuffle away not meet his gaze, or the times they leaned away from him like he carried a plague. Not that he really blamed them, the self-proclaimed Ghost King was following along with their cheerful group. He could block them out when Will would grin or bump his shoulder against Nico's. The problem was Will hadn't asked Nico to join them today so Nico hung back in the shadows of the Athena Parthenos and skulked.
"Just go down the hill." Nico murmured to himself. "You've been to Tartarus di Angelo, go talk to him."
But panic seized him and he stood there instead staring at the sun like a fool. In his defense it had only been like two weeks since everyone left for the end of Camp. Jason was still here he was leaving after the scavenger hunt. He had been an uncomfortable yet supportive buffer for the times Nico choked. Which had been a lot lately. Today was also an abnormally bad day for self-doubt and a little (just a little) depression.
Think about the three days you spent in the infirmary with him. Nope that thought did not help. It had been three days of rest while Will hovered and fussed like a very cute mother hen. His bright blue eyes had been bright and earnest as he argued and bullied Nico into drinking Gatorade and eating things that were not junk food. Nico alternated between bickering and snipping at him. By day three a healthy color had returned to Nico's face that Piper insisted was a very cute blush. He raised a sticky hand to his face and felt the heat there now. He cursed in ancient Greek and threw himself down on the withering grass. He sat there moping, absorbed in his own personal shadow, he didn't hear Jason approach until he crouched beside Nico.
"Hey." He said to Nico cheerfully. Nico jumped a good foot in the air.
"Tu cazzo!" Nico snapped leaping to his feet Stygian Iron blade in hand. Jason laughed raucously almost falling over, glasses flashing in the sun.
"Sorry I just hadn't seen you and I thought I would check on how you were doing…." He crooks an eyebrow, he's still trying to suppress a grin. "Seems to be going well."
"Shut up Grace." Nico crosses his arms and scowls. "Why are you here?"
"I'm just checking on my dear friend. Is that not allowed?" Jason asks putting a hand across his heart in mock shock.
"You're just snooping around you gossip! Piper sent you." Nico growled suspiciously. A small voice in the back of his head chides him to soften his tone. People skills it insists, but Nico disregards it in his moment of annoyance.
"No I'm here genuinely." Jason holds up his hands pleadingly. "Honestly I'm here as a concerned friend."
Nico lets his arms fall to his sides still suspicious, Jason was a good friend though. One of his first friends he was honestly open too. It had been one of the most horrible experiences he'd been through, and he'd been through freaking Tartarus. Jason had been really cool about it and made Nico feel welcome. He stayed close even now, he seemed to have an annoying sixth sense for Nico's weakest moments. Like now.
"Did you talk to him...?" Jason asks slowly. Carefully.
"I'm not fragile." Nico snaps. "You don't have to use that tone with me."
"I think we talked a little about your own tone." Jason says in the same careful conversational tone. "I can leave if you would like?"
"No." Nico mumbles deflating a little. "I can't do it."
"You've talked to him a lot." Jason reminds him gently.
"This is different!" Nico insists. "This is me asking him to do something, and it's not quest related, and it's just us! That is super different!"
Jason raises his eyebrow again.
Nico groans theatrically and throws his hands in the air.
"Okay I've got an idea!" Jason says suddenly brightening. "Why don't you team up with someone else? I'll go down there and ask Will to be on my team, then I'll make sure I have some small emergency and ditch Will somewhere you can pick him up. Then you can be a hero and bring him to victory with your group? Sound good?"
"No Jason that's a terrible idea!" Nico squawks at him as Jason squints over Nico's head with a half-smile.
"Okay well he's walking over here thanks to you yelling, so unless you come up with a better idea I'm going to go ask him to be my partner." Jason counts down his fingers while Nico stands there opening and closing his mouth like a fish.
"I'll just ask him tomorrow." Nico pleads but Jason shakes his head slightly and grins.
"Ask who what?" Will asks brightly behind Nico. His voice is like a tingle of electricity up Nico's spine. He turns slowly to see Will standing there hand on hip regarding them with an almost a knowing look. He's wearing a rumbled camp T-shirt with a pair of ripped jeans and the flip flops he seems to live in. He has a smear of strawberry on the side of his face and a few splatters across his arms that he doesn't seem to mind. The wind whispers past the Athena Parthenos mussing his blond hair. What had Nico called it all those weeks ago? A blond flag. Or a mop. Something romantic like that.
"I- I was going to-." Nico starts and stops he can feel heat rising to his cheeks. No more words come out, he glances sideways to Jason silently begging for help.
"We were doing a mad game of rock paper scissors up here to see who got to ask you to be our partner in tomorrow's scavenger hunt." Will visibly brightens, if that's even possible for him to get brighter, at Jason's words. His eyes flicked to Nico with something like hope?
Nico thought his stomach was going to drop straight out onto the withering grass at his feet.
"Who won?" Will asks cocking his head and actually looking at Nico, all the shadows surrounding Nico seem to melt away.
"I did." Jason says clapping a hand on Nico's shoulder. Nico feels a twinge of annoyance and a deep yawning pit of disappointment. "Nico speaks very highly of you, and he already agreed to help mentor one of the younger campers for their first time out."
"Oh." Will seems to deflate a little, but he shakes himself out of it so quickly Nico convinces himself it was nothing. "Yeah that'd be fun!"
"Great!" Jason says cheerfully. He glances between them a few times and then walks off.
"Who are you mentoring?" Will asks a strange note in his voice.
"Uh." Nico curses Jason as he casts around suddenly forgetting all the young campers names. "Maybe Harley or Nancy. Chiron reached out asking some of the veterans to show them around. I was just supposed to be available. I was going to ask you but Jason wants to win and with Piper off looking for Leo I thought it might be good…"
Hello word vomit. Nico moans internally.
"Oh that's really cool!" Will says brightly. "I guess I'm working with Jason. It's going to be weird I swear I only ever seem to hang out with him when you're around."
Will smiles and opens his mouth as though he's going to say more, but he turns as his sister Kayla calls something up the hill to him. He grimaces and rolls his eyes long suffering towards Nico.
"Sorry I've got to go, that's Kayla medic call. It must be the Ares cabin getting into it at the sword fighting arena again." Will starts to back down the hill. "But hey if you aren't busy later you could stop by! I'd be happy for a friendly face. Maybe I can help you with your weak rock, paper, scissors game. That way we can partners next time."
He turns and sprints back down the hill.
"I'm not that bad at Rock Paper Scissors! It's a child's game of chance!" Nico calls after him feel a surge of something. Maybe vomit.
Nico turns and melts back into the shadow of the Athena Parthenos and plants face first into his bunk in the Hades Cabin. He settles moping in the darkness of the much more reasonably decorated Hades cabin. Torches of silvery fire throw sharp dancing shadows across the cool black and white interior. The sheets on Nico's bunk are light gray and the comforter was a gift from Piper. Its black with sugar skulls embroidered across the bottom. He had thanked her quietly but secretly he loved it. Music plays from the enchanted boom box Percy hid as a parting gift before he left to be devoured by a mountain of schoolwork.
He deserves it after having set the infernal device loose. It's enchanted to play music based on the listener's mood. Right now it plays a soft cover of Seven Nation Army, a woman's soft voice murmurs the lyrics adding to the teenage angst clouding the cabin. After the brief shadow travel Nico's eyes feel heavy and his mood worsens. Lying there in a puddle of regrets until dinner sounds good. He alternated dozing and thinking about Will. The boom box moans something in Italian that sounds suspiciously like breakup music. It does nothing to improve Nico's mood.
A knock at the door finally drags Nico off the bed. Half hoping half dreading its Will. Instead his heart sinks when he opens the door and Jason's tall silhouette blocks the door. Again.
"You." Nico growls.
"Me." Jason says cheerfully walking past Nico to sit on the unoccupied bunk beside Nico's. It had become an annoying habit of his lately. He seemed to have forgotten who Nico was. "So did you have a good talk after I left?"
"I'm not telling you after what you did up there." Nico grumps shutting the door and flopping face first back on the bed.
"I can already feel a cold coming on…" Jason says thickly as he flops back on the bed. He rolls over to face Nico. "Is it really that bad? I'm just trying to look out for you. Especially since I'm leaving in a few days to go back to the west coast. I just want to make sure that you'll be okay."
Nico groans into the pillow and flops back over to stare at the canopy. He feels a twinge of guilt for making Jason worry about him. The guilt changes to annoyance as Jason rolls
"No." he concedes grudgingly. "It's not that bad and need I remind you I've done fine on my own before."
"I know you can handle it." Jason says quickly. "It's just that you're my friend and I want to make sure you feel…. Alone."
"There are tons of campers here Jason I won't actually ever be alone." Nico replies petulantly.
"You're impossible." Jason grumbled rolling on his back again. "You know what I mean you little-"
"I know Jason." Nico feels a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "But thanks to you I kind of told Will I was mentoring one of the littles that Chiron keeps trying to push off on everyone."
"You did not!?" Jason laughs sitting up. "Well now we need to find you a little!"
"We really don't."
"You can't lie to your future boyfriend!" Jason quips rolling back to his feet. He must be in an unusually good mood because the boom box sputters in the middle of a Halloween special effects track and changes to some upbeat hip hop nonsense song.
"Don't call him that." Nico says warningly. "Jason I'm serious."
"I'll be good I promise." Jason promises as the volume rises with his grin. The song is obnoxious and repetitive. Will would probably know the name of it Nico thinks to himself glumly. The Boom box splutters again and spits out a few sad notes of violin music before spluttering again and launching into a rather loud rendition of Dear Future Husband.
"So you still can't get it to deactivate?" Jason asks pointing to the bronze boom box perched on the top of an unused dresser.
"Go ahead try to turn it off." Nico says glumly. "I've tried everything, even Jules Albert can't seem to catch it."
"Catch it?" Jason asks confused.
"Go ahead try." Nico offers pointing toward the possessed boom box. Secretly Nico can't wait to watch Jason chase the stupid boom box around. Serves him right. Nico had cornered the infernal thing the first night it was in the cabin but it had spit an unorthodox amount of tape and bits of CD at Nico until it spotted freedom and went scooting away. In a rage Nico summoned Jules Albert and together they wrecked the Cabin trying to destroy it. All the while it shimmied away belting Smooth Criminal so loudly other campers had come to make sure the son of Hades hadn't gone insane.
Jason leans over and tries to nonchalantly touch the volume dial. The boom box screeches and starts rapping about thongs as it flies off the dresser in a shower of books and spare t-shirts. It mutters to itself in Weird Al's voice before scooting under Nico's bed.
"I hate Percy." Nico grumbles aiming an ineffectual kick towards the boom box. It starts to lament an opera.
"Okay," Jason raises his hands in defeat and the music quiets slightly. Nico can tell he's trying not to laugh and it does nothing to improve his current mood. "Okay killer lets go find you a little to babysit for the scavenger hunt."
Reluctantly Nico trails Jason out of the cabin, muttering unpleasant things about Percy and his boom box.