show me a hero (i'll write you a tragedy)
summary: he heard them calling in the distance, so he disappeared. /nico character study.
He has a terrible habit of running away when things started to fall apart.
It's a coward's thing to do but he can't help it, he can't he can't he can't and he fucking loathes it.
It's not something Percy would do, not something gods damn fucking Jason would do, it's something Bianca hated but he does it anyway.
{{they were heroes and they never ran away because running away was utterly unheroic but he never said he's a hero, because heroes don't summon the dead and they don't run away}}
He runs when he starts to slip.
{{and he knows how slipping feels, he knows the moment you lose a hold and you can't get traction again and you lose your grip and your control and you're slipping, you're falling, ashes, ashes, we all burnt down}}
The first time he runs away, he has been at the Wilderness school for 2 weeks.
They're talking about parents and he's been keeping quiet in the corner, not saying anything and scratching the recesses of his brain for something but he can't, he can't, and one of the kids turns to him and why can't he remember?
"I don't... I don't know. I don't have them." he murmurs. He sees the teacher's pitying look and inside he screams that he doesn't want her pity. He sees the confused faces and he sinks into his chair and he can feel like he's slipping, so when the bell rings he is the first one out and he sprints to the woods, his feet a thud thud crunch across concrete and leaves and he hides in the woods until right before curfew.
{{bianca scolds him for an hour but he doesn't hear a word}}
He runs away when he hears that Bianca's not coming back with him, he runs when he hears she's leaving him for a stupid band of girls because she's sick of him, and he runs until all he can hear is the thud thud crunch and the silent tears streaking down his face.
{{she hated when she runs off and when he thinks of this he run even harder}}
When he hears she's dead he's angry, he's angry first before all else, angry at Bianca, angry at Percy, at Artemis, at himself.
He runs the fastest he's ever done in his life. He hears them calling in the distance, so he disappears.
{{bianca would've hated it and he's ashamed to say that it makes him insanely happy to know that}}
Running away is a coward thing to do, but he's no hero, is he? No, he's Nico and he just runs. He isn't Bianca or Percy or Jason or Annabeth.
He's a runner, isn't he?
Heroes aren't runners.
footnotes;
gosh i just wanted to write this and what i posted earlier was crap soooo
next thing i post will be a huuuuge project ok expect it any day now