Okay, so even before I even read The Blood of Olympus I had seen a lot of spoilery images in Pinterest and read some things that made me catch on the fact that Nico and Reyna became close during the book, so I had this idea floating in my mind ad all, but I was like 'No, Karen, you first read the book and the write something with it', just because I like my stories to be the most accurate with the books as possible (though all that cared proved useless after Leo doesn't even return to the Camp at the end and I had always assumed that The Seven would live through the books ans stay happily at Camp Half-Blood but whatever).
So, after finishing The Blood of Olympus I decided to actually write this down, so here it is!
Comparisons
Nico scanned the borders of New Rome absently.
As soon as Solace had told him he was able to travel through the shadows safely he had decided to make a surprise visit to Hazel. It was just to make sure she was okay, he'd convinced himself.
However, unexpected as the whole visit was, Hazel had been busy, Gwen informed. It was Reyna's day off –yes, the one and only she took every month–, and Frank was in charge, which probably explained why he needed Hazel's help.
So, instead of going right to his sister right then he had decided to better go looking for Reyna until Hazel was free, which concluded in him asking Gwen to tell Hazel he was at the camp and then searching for Reyna.
He finally found her, on top of the hill she had once spoken to Annabeth in, her eyes lost in the horizon, but his body in complete alert, still watching over New Rome unconsciously, even as her mind was deep in thought.
"Nico" she greeted, her eyes still focused on the buildings from the city. He liked that from her, how she could keep her mind in two different places, how she wouldn't put up a fuss over simple things like him arriving without informing of his plans and would keep priorities in their place.
"Praetor" he responded, watching her roll her eyes. He knew she hated that he would call her by her title instead of her name when they had become close friends after the war, but Reyna knew he kept doing so just to push her buttons, so she didn't even bother calling his attention on that anymore.
They stayed in complete silence for a while, with none of them being great speakers, simply enjoying the company of each other.
For a moment, Nico considered the real reason for his sudden visit to the Roman camp. He was there to check up on Hazel, surely, but there was something else, something so magnetic that had literally pulled him from the other side of the country, something that he was not sure about. And suddenly, looking at Reyna's figure, he knew what it was.
He had traveled to keep an eye on his younger sister, and yet, he was there because he, himself, was looking for something, something that most certainly had nothing to do with Hazel.
"I miss her" he suddenly blurted out, from nowhere, breaking the silence in which they had fallen.
Reyna did as much as raising an eyebrow in slight puzzlement. She turned over her left shoulder, trying to lock her eyes with Nico's, but failing as he had his covered by his long, dark hair.
"Hazel?" she asked in a low voice, though it seemed obvious, who else would Nico be missing from the Roman camp?
Still, and much to Reyna's surprise, Nico denied by moving his head to the sides. "Bianca" he muttered after a few seconds.
Reyna's breath was caught in her throat. Bianca. She knew the name, didn't she? Bianca di Angelo had been Nico's sister, as far as she knew, but the girl had died around four years earlier. It was weird to hear something about feelings from Nico di Angelo, hear him talking about his deceased sister? That was worrying.
Still, Reyna strained to keep her face stoic, trying to blink back her surprise. She inhaled deeply, without letting any trace of emotion cross her features.
"Missing is a part of mourning" she finally said, testing the ground, unsure of how much she could push him. On her side, Nico snorted impatiently.
"She's been dead for years now" he snarled at her.
"Her memory isn't" Reyna pointed out, and before Nico could argue something else. "You've met my sister" she said. "Hylla. We were together most of our lives. I would be dead a million times if it hadn't been for her. When she went for the Amazons and I came looking for Camp Jupiter was the first time we really were separated" she explained, biting her lower lip. "The first few months all I could think of was of her." She paused, gulping slowly. "But then, after I was able to wrap myself around the idea of not seeing her anymore, I could finally begin to feel at ease at the camp. At home, even if she was not here."
"Bianca is dead!" Nico snapped at her, interrupting whatever she was going to say next.
He expected Reyna to tense up and seem uneasy, at least to hesitate. Instead, she didn't even flinch, simply nodding.
"I know she is" Reyna nodded. "What I'm saying is that, sometimes, you have to let go of the people you love just to make room for new people. It doesn't mean you'll forget them, or ever stop missing them, or loving them, for the matter. It just means that–letting them go, for both your happiness and health. You can't always live in the past, you know it as well as I do."
That was the moment when their eyes finally met. Reyna's were serious and severe, but they still held worriedness and concern. On the other side, Nico's shone with a challenge, with that gaze that would usually make the people step back. Reyna simply stared back at him, his expression not showing anything that she might feel, like was her habit.
Had she been anyone else, Nico would have shouted, screamed at her, not saying much other than empty threats, and for a moment he considered doing so, like he would have done with Jason, or with Percy, or with Solace or with pretty much everyone–but Reyna was different.
He couldn't do any of the above just because of who he was talking to, because the kind of person Reyna was.
Reyna knew him, knew him well enough to realize that any threats he snarled at her in that moment would turn out to be words said to the wind. She knew how to keep her cool under any circumstances, jeez, not only was she used to it, she did that for a living. It was ridiculous to try to make her mad or use her emotions in your advantage. That was something she wouldn't allow him to do at all.
Maybe he could manage to stop conversations he didn't want to have by using that tactic with Jason or Solace, Hades even, if he tried hard enough, and he could walk away with it unhurt, but it simply did not work like that with Reyna.
Not that Reyna would hurt him, no. He trusted her, he surely did, with his life. And he knew she trusted him too, and appreciated him. It wasn't every day or to everyone that you had New Rome's praetor talking aloud about her feelings.
She was trying, he knew that, she was trying to help him, and to show him that he could count on her even if he already knew that, and it simply seemed unfair that even knowing her as much as he did he didn't give in to her and instead pulled up walls around himself like he did with all of the others. It was especially unfair when he'd been the one to start that conversation in the first place.
Reyna was different.
"I miss her" he finally repeated with a trembling voice, his tone low and tired, not the one a fourteen-year-old should have known. He slowly, almost warily, rested his head on Reyna's shoulder.
"I know you do" Reyna said softly, as she circled the boy's thin shoulders with her left arm, bringing him to her chest. "And it is okay if you do so."
They stayed like that for some time, maybe more than ten minutes, with Nico nestled on the crook of Reyna's neck, in complete silence. For a moment, Nico simply enjoyed the feeling of Reyna's strong arm around him, silently supporting him, both emotionally and physically.
"You know what always makes me think of Hylla?" she asked aloud, and then, not waiting for an answer. "Tomatoes."
Although she couldn't see Nico's brow rise in confusion, she could perfectly figure it out. The thought made her chuckle.
"When I was younger I hated them" Reyna finally started to explain. "Scratch that, I still do. But Hylla would force me to eat them either way. So now that she isn't around to make me eat them I have to force myself to do it" she then continued chuckling softly. Nico could feel her laugh reverberate through her chest.
A few minutes of silence followed. Reyna hadn't expected an answer, she had just said that to fill in the silence. Nico did answer, though.
"Peas" he said in a low voice. Upon knowing that at that height Reyna had raised an eyebrow in puzzlement, almost mimicking his own expression from a few minutes ago, he continued. "Bianca would force me to eat peas".
Reyna laughed again. Against anything that one might think, her laugh wasn't strong or harsh, but rather soft. Well, at least her real laugh, not the one that wasn't full of irony and taunt, but the one she gave to the people she actually appreciated and cared about.
"May I ask if you do eat them now?" she wondered. Nico awkwardly shifted his weight on her side, without answering, which made her smile. "So then I know what I must be checking, huh?" she joked, ruffling Nico's hair. The son of Hades allowed himself to smile a little, enjoying for that brief moment the feeling of being taken care of, of feeling like the younger sibling again.
"Hazel hates cauliflower" he accused, still smiling.
For a moment, Reyna faked she was thinking about her answer. "Nope" she finally replied. "Hazel is your responsibility" Reyna added softly. Nico nodded on her side.
Another round of silence followed, until Nico finally broke it.
"You remind me of her" Nico whispered then, his voice so low if the wind had been blowing in that moment, Reyna might haven't been able to hear him.
Immediately, Reyna's body stiffened, only to relax again slowly. Had it been someone else she was being compared to, she might have felt offended, but this was Nico's older sister they were talking about. The one person who had been by his side until her death, and the one person that Nico had loved so he'd almost gone crazy after losing.
Coming from Nico, a comparison to Bianca, even if she hadn't officially met the girl, was a compliment. A compliment to which she hadn't an answer.
What was she supposed to say? 'Thank you' didn't make it, and Reyna didn't know what she was supposed to do or say.
In the end, still wondering if it would prove like something intelligent she turned over her left shoulder and slowly leaned down to press a soft kiss on Nico's forehead, as if she were trying to wordlessly tell him she was far from bothered by that comparison. In fact, she felt proud. Proud that she was given the chance to do something for this boy.
Nico, on the other side didn't try to avoid her, like he would have had it been someone else. He simply let her do, knowing there was no reason to avoid her, neither did he want to. It was so rare from Reyna to show affection as rare was from him accept it, and yet, there they were.
Soon, both of them were looking to the front again, not saying nothing, but rather paying attention to the hustle and bustle that the whole New Rome produced around them.
It was probably more than fifteen minutes later that they finally heard hurried steps at their backs.
They both turned over their shoulders, trying to take a look at the intruder –not bothering to remember that Reyna's arm was still wrapped around Nico's shoulders–, only to find out it was Hazel, who was happily smiling at them.
"Nico!" she panted. "I'm so sorry for making you wait, I didn't know you were coming!"
Nico simply nodded, freeing himself from Reyna's embrace by stepping to the front, drawing his arms around Hazel instead.
"Praetor" Hazel greeted when Nico had finally freed her, as if she had just noticed Reyna standing there.
Reyna simply gave her the ghost of a smile.
"I hope your presence here means praetor Zhang isn't having any trouble." she said, in her usual; formal voice.
"The Fourth Cohort, that's all" Hazel explained, just to rapidly add. "But nothing he can't control."
"If that's so" Reyna continued. "I think I'll leave both of you to your business. Tell Frank if he needs me I'll be in the stables."
Hazel nodded, smiling, and soon enough Reyna disappeared in the distance.
Just as she left, Hazel started her usual non-stop chatting, telling Nico all the news, unimportant and big, from the camp, starting right after the war with Gaea, since he had been staying at the Greek camp and during their Iris Messages she hadn't wanted to weight him down with it.
Nico nodded repeatedly, trying as hard as he could to retain every single detail Hazel was bombarding him with, but given the speed with which Hazel was speaking in, all he really could focus on was the sweetness of Hazel's voice and the sparkle from her eyes.
She seemed happy, he noticed. More than that, she was happy. And that was all he really needed to know, the real reason why he had traveled the whole country right after Solace had told him he could securely use the shadows again.
And just then did he noticed, that this was probably how Bianca felt when he started talking to him about simple trivialities and card games. She might have not understood a thing, but the fact that he was happy made it worth it for her to fake she actually was understanding.
A genuine smile made its way to his lips.
"You alright?" Hazel asked worriedly, stopping her talking as fast as it had begun.
"Better than ever" he said, smiling as he circled her waist and kissed her left cheek.
Hazel smiled as well, as she continued pointing the different buildings, explaining that after the war Annabeth had been responsible of sending the designs for the reconstruction. Nico listened to her intently, although he already knew–he had seen the daughter of Athena working on them.
They continued like that, endlessly chatting about little things. No more wars coming, no end of the world–just the two of them.
Surprisingly enough, Nico continued smiling at Hazel through the whole visit, which lasted a few days. Happy simply by seeing Hazel be happy.
Maybe, Nico thought, just like Reyna had said, it worked just like that–people left only for making room for new people.
And maybe, he thought, it was time for letting go. Not for forgetting–he knew he would never be able to do such a thing. Not for forgiving–he had done that years ago. Simply for letting go, for accepting, to take in–to understand that when something leaves something else will eventually come to fill in the space left behind. And even if it wasn't the same, it was something–it was what he would take, without turning back.
How did it go? I think there's a bit of OOC there... I'm not fully sure about it, though... I'm not fully convinced I reached what I wanted or that this expresses enough, but I still like it.
Anyways, you tell me what you think!