He knew, he just knew, one day, it would get out. It wasn't anyone's fault but his, and Gods, do rumours spread fast.
Nico knows that better than anyone else.
"Did'ja hear Nico di Angelo is gay?"
"I heard he has a crush on someone at camp."
"Do you think he'll try to flirt with anyone?"
"Does this mean he can hang out at slumber parties with us?"
Nico stabs a stick in the ground angrily, ignoring the chattering girls as they wandered past, not noticing him. It was nice, sometimes, to have that talent. Typical, just fucking typical.
Nevermind you've known my by sight for a few years at least, nevermind how I've acted before, I'm gay so obviously, I must adhere to every single stereotype you thrust upon me.
The branch snaps just below Nico's hand, leaving the skin stinging from the hit, but Nico didn't care. He stares at the branch in his hand before dumping it on the ground and driving it into the dirt with his foot.
He considers leaving, but where would he go? No one was bothering him out here, and it's not like any other place would be better.
Quiet footsteps behind him almost having him shadow traveling away, but why bother?
He doesn't turn around to check who's there, so when the voice behind him says, "Uh— hi?" Nico scowls. He doesn't want to deal with Leo's flippant attitude, he doesn't want the jokes, and he doesn't want to be around anyone he knows makes fun of people.
"What do you want, Valdez."
"Uh— You're on my log." At this, Nico turns around to look at him, a look of 'Seriously?' written on his face. Leo shrugs, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I come out here to think. No one else comes out here, usually."
Nico nods, if just a little, and makes the effort to move over a bit so there's room, but he doesn't leave. He doesn't see why he needs to— Leo hasn't asked him, and every other log is just as good.
Leo doesn't sit down. When Nico turns around and gives him a questioning look, Leo practically turns red without the fire. "Uh—"
Nico feels like he could burst into flame too. "Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I'm going to hit on you. I never did before." When Leo still doesn't move, Nico's scowl deepens. "You're not even that attractive."
"Oi!" Leo doesn't sound genuinely hurt, and Nico doubts he would feel bad about it if he had. "Alright. Sorry." The mutter from Leo and how he sits down beside him don't do much to make Nico feel better. There's a few minutes of silence, angry for Nico, and very uncomfortable for Leo.
Eventually, Leo nervously breaks the silence. "So, uh— what's it like?"
Nico knows what he's getting at, but he isn't making this easy. "What's what like?"
"Being... being gay."
"I dunno. What's it like being straight?" Leo blinks at this, and Nico can't help but feel a little proud he might've actually got one person to stop being a moron about the whole damn thing.
Silence. And then, a topic change. Not that Nico minds. It's not as though discussing his sexuality is a fun conversation. "Why are you out here?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
Leo sighs, drawing his knees up to his chest, and the movement draws Nico's attention. Leo's usual smile is gone now, and he looks distant, as though he's reliving the past. "I come here to think." he repeats, and then there's silence. It's uncomfortable, and drawn out, because Nico knows Leo has questions that the son of Hades doesn't actually want to answer.
"So that it?" Leo asks. "You just like guys instead of girls? No sleepover parties, no hitting on people? No drag, no—"
"Have you met me?"
Leo cracks a smile at this, despite Nico's stormy expression. "Point taken, di Angelo."
Nico almost wants to start yelling. He wants to yell about how he hates that stupid attitude, he wants to yell about how he just knows one of these days he's gonna get beat up for it, he wants to yell because the forest is big and no one would hear him.
Except Leo, sitting next to him. Annoying, irritating, liable to make dumb jokes at every opportunity. Liable to freak out if he started yelling. Ask him if he was attention seeking, maybe.
"Fuck," mutters Nico, and crosses his arms.
Leo hasn't moved from how he was sitting before. Knees draw to his chest, forehand resting on them. His arms are wrapped around his legs, and he isn't moving, save from tapping his fingers. There's what seems like hours of silence, although it's probably only been a few minutes. Nico notices the finger tapping makes a pattern, although he doesn't know what for. So he asks.
"What's with the tapping?"
Leo raises his head, as though he's forgotten Nico was there, and for a second, Nico can see a familiar sort of expression on his face, although it doesn't quite fit with his features. As though Nico's so used to that stupid smile or the frown of 'don't touch my stuff' or 'I'm concentrating fuck off', that the expression seems alien.
But he's seen it before, every time he looks in a mirror.
And then it's gone, and Leo's shrugging indifferently. "It's, uh— nothing, it's nothing." The tapping doesn't stop, and Nico wants to ask again, but knows he won't get an answer.
He would feel almost sympathetic for the other demigod, if not for his current dilemma. He grabs another branch and breaks it, then breaks the pieces, then those pieces, and he keeps going until there's no stick left. And then he picks up another branch and starts again.
It's awhile before anything is said, and then Leo coughs. "Dude? You're hand is bleeding." And it is, caught by the sharp end of a branch, as well as covered in splinters.
"Easy to deal with," he says offhandedly. He'd rather deal with splinters and blood than anything else.
"So are machines." The words are quiet, and Nico almost misses them, and when he turns to Leo in surprise, the demigod shows no indication of having said anything at all.
And then the moment of surprise is gone, and Leo is speaking like he said nothing before. The questions aren't hesitant anymore, as though he's lost the fear Nico will kill him if he says the wrong thing. "So, are the rumours that you have the hots for some guy rumours, or—"
"Rumours," says Nico. It's a lie, but Leo doesn't need to know everything about him. In fact, he'd prefer if Leo knew almost nothing about him, but with camp buzzing like this, that wasn't happening.
"Oh."
Nico raises an eyebrow. "Disappointed or something? Hoping it was you? I thought you didn't want me hitting on you." The red tinge in Leo's cheeks is back, and Nico rolls his eyes. "You really don't get it do you?"
"No," says Leo, quietly now.
"I hate this camp," says Nico, standing up and brushing himself off as best he can with a hand full of splinters. It's a bad idea, because his hand protests as soon as it comes in contact with his jeans.
"Where are you gonna go?"
"I—" He doesn't know. It's not like there's many places he can go, but he doesn't want to stay here. So instead of shadow traveling, he turns around and starts back to his cabin, wondering if he was allowed to put a lock on the door.
Out of curiosity, he turns back to look at Leo. After all, the demigod didn't come to talk to him about being gay. Leo hasn't turned to watch him go, or if he had, he's turned back now. He doesn't move, and Nico thinks that, in itself, is odd, because Leo's always moving.
So are machines.
Nico pushes the words out of his head as he arrives at his cabin, shutting the door quietly behind him. He's made it this far, no need to alert anyone he's here now.
The nest morning, he's almost made it out of the camp to travel to Gods-know-where. Almost being the operative word.
"Nico! Hey Nico!" Nico makes the mistake of turning around at the voice, and the girl's smile gets wider. He wants to bolt, but then she's caught up with him, grabbed onto his wrist. Right in the middle of camp, barely a couple yards away from some of the other campers. "So, Nico—" her grin makes his stomach flip, and he doesn't want to be here because she's talking so damn loud, and people are starting to pay attention— "Who's the hottest boy at camp?"
Shit, he thinks, and wonders if he could shadow travel out of her grip. He's stumbling for an answer that doesn't require him dying right after, and then—
"Hottest boy in camp?" Out of all the people to cut in, Leo is not the person he expected, but Gods, is he grateful for it. "Me, obviously." Leo's grinning like he's got an inside joke, and that's about when everyone notices his hand is on fire. "I mean, come on, who else are you gonna give the title to?"
"Shut up, Valdez, I was asking Nico." Everyone's paying attention now, and she still hasn't let go of his wrist, and he wonders if he could hit her for it, or whether he would get in trouble.
Leo, persistent bastard that he is, isn't stopping there. "Excuse me. I think we can all agree on this." As if to prove his point, he turns and yells to the other camper, "Yo! Am I hot?" And extends his hand.
Piper is the first one to get it, and she yells back "ON FIRE!" followed by a wolf whistle, courtesy of Connor Stoll. The girl who's holding onto Nico makes the mistake of crossing her arms, and as soon as Nico's free, he bolt, not really caring who sees him. He just wants to leave. The woods seem like a good place, and he hasn't turned around to see if he's being followed.
He's out of the forest as quick as he got in, this time not hesitating to shadow travel far, far away. He lands in another forest, in another part of the world, but so long as it's not Camp Half-Blood, he doesn't care.
He finds himself giving a silent thank you to Leo Valdez. He may be annoying, insufferable, and full of really, really shitty ideas, but he did just save Nico from her girl.
He sits down, working on pulling the splinters out of his hand. He puts all his focus on it, because they are much, much easier to handle than camp right now.
[[ Yeah, Author's note part. Sometimes, I try to stick to canon behaviours and it doesn't really work, so sorry for that. This one's marked incomplete, because I may write a few more chapters, although I don't know whether if I do that the half-friendship that they've got here will dissolve into my shipping frenzied mind and become Ghost Fire. I love Valdangelo, but I'm trying to stay on canon here. But you may get a few more chapter out of this one, if I can pull Nico out of that one. ]]