When Solace had insisted he owed him time in the infirmary, Nico had shrugged it off and dismissed it as little more than a joke. Now, as he was pushed rather firmly down onto a white bed tucked neatly into the corner of a bustling, brightly lit and immaculate room, it occurred to him that he had underestimated the healer's resolve. As the blond fussed over a metal tray next to the bed, Nico allowed his eyes to wander around the room, taking in each sight and smell. Nico fought to sit up and get off the bed, but Solace simply pushed him back down again and raised a needle.
"I'll sedate you if you don't stay down, Di Angelo." Will said, staring Nico down in warning. Nico held his gaze for a moment before he sensed the resolve in Solace's words and averted his eyes, remaining still. "Good, you're learning." The boy pulled a strap from the tray next to the bed and wrapped it tightly around Nico's left arm, tying it at the end. Nico's arm throbbed numbly as the blood circulation was restricted and watched as Will pressed down on his skin, trying to locate a vein. It didn't take long – what with how thin Nico was and the contrast between the colours of his veins and his ghostly-white skin – and Will turned around again, picking up a different needle. Nico broke his gaze away from the sharp point of the hypodermic needle and threw another glance around the room, noticing several pairs of eyes averting themselves from his direction.
"Can't this be done elsewhere?" Nico asked, feeling increasingly uncomfortable in the infirmary. "Death and the Underworld don't exactly fit in with health and sunshine." As if to emphasise his point, Nico gestured with his free arm to the clothes hanging loosely off his thin frame and to his pale white skin. In response, Will rolled his eyes and raised the needle.
"Here's an idea," the boy said, driving the needle slowly into Nico's arm, eliciting a hiss of pain that was quickly stifled by the son of Hades. "How about you don't let what people perceive your dad to be define you?" The boy began drawing blood from Nico's arm, which throbbed angrily at the intrusion. "I mean, you don't see me skinning satyrs because they can play instruments better than me, do you? Don't get me wrong," Will threw his hands up defensively. "The thought has crossed my mind, especially when they decide to start playing in the middle of the night and I'm trying to sleep, but that's irrelevant."
Will began removing the needle slowly after he had filled several containers of blood samples. As the needle left Nico's arm, the blond pressed a cotton bud against the open wound and muttered melodically in Ancient Greek – Nico recognised it to be a hymn to Apollo. When he pulled the cotton bud away, Nico noticed that the wound had closed and he felt no pain when Will removed the constriction belt. Solace turned his back to Nico again, handing the samples to a younger girl and muttered instructions to her – Nico caught only snatches of what sounded like "thyroid" and "Kayla."
For a few moments, Will's eyes lingered on Nico and they trailed up and down the boy's body, inspecting every inch of visible skin with a critical eye. Before Nico could question Will's actions, the girl called Kayla had returned and handed a clipboard to Will before she disappeared to a different part of the infirmary again. The blond scanned through the notes quickly, glancing up at Nico every now and then before he put the clipboard down and reached around for a clean needle which Nico eyed nervously. Will noticed and smirked.
"For someone who hangs with the dead more than the living, you get awful twitchy around needles, Di Angelo. Just relax or it'll hurt more." Even by forcing himself to relax, it still hurt and Nico still flinched when the needle penetrated the skin on his right arm. Rather than drawing blood, Will left the needle in his vein and secured it in place with surgical tape before he attached a translucent tube connected to a bag to the end of it and began feeding clear liquid through. It burnt at first and Nico tensed, but the pain subsided immediately when the son of Apollo traced the path of Nico's veins with his palm and muttered another prayer to Apollo. Nico sat up after a moment.
"And exactly why are you pumping me full of chemicals?" He asked, pointing to the drip inserted into his arm. Will slapped his hand away and sat down in a chair adjacent to Nico's bed, picking up and glancing through the clipboard notes again.
"Well, let's see." Will adopted a sarcastic tone. "It can't be anything to do with the fact you look like those skeletons you raise or that you're whiter than Christmas in Alaska even after exposure to serious sunlight. I'm definitely just doing it because I enjoy stabbing people with needles." He rolled his eyes and flipped the paper over on the clipboard, drawing something with a pencil on the second page. He flipped the clipboard to face Nico and gestured at the graph he had drawn.
"See this?" Will questioned, pointing at a darkly-drawn upwards curve. "This is what you'd expect to see if you looked at the average guy your age and measured their vitamin levels. This?" He pointed to a significantly smaller lightly-drawn curve underneath it. "That's your levels. There's obviously something wrong, so I'm finding out what so I can solve it, like a good doctor does. Now," The blond stood up and adjusted the white lab coat he wore. "Be a good patient and lay down and get some rest. I'll be back later, I've just got to check on Mellie and Chuck and see how they're doing after the birth."
Before Nico could speak, the boy had bustled off to a different part of the infirmary and his head had started swimming. His vision blurred and he groggily wondered if the drip was feeding anaesthetic into his system and not just vitamins. He fought to keep his eyes open, wanting to remain awake and alert, but the anaesthetic beat him into submission and his eyes closed.
His eyes drifted groggily open what seemed like seconds later, though his sluggish brain realised it had more than likely been hours since he fell asleep. It took him a moment to register what had woken him from the anaesthetic-induced sleep, but it slowly dawned on him when he recognised the smooth voice of Percy bickering with another voice he realised belonged to Will Solace. The blond glanced at Nico fleetingly before he returned his attention to Percy.
"Damn it, Jackson, you woke him up!" Will rubbed his temple gently with one hand as if warding off a migraine and pointed at Percy threateningly with a clipboard in his other hand. "You know the rules – no interfering with patients! You've been in here enough times to know that visiting hours ended an hour ago." Percy sheepishly ran a hand through his hair, smiling gently at Will though he eyed the clipboard nervously.
"Sorry, Solace, I've just got some things I need to talk to Nico about – urgent stuff, y'know?" Percy ventured. Evidently Will either didn't know or didn't classify it as urgent enough, but Percy noticed the boy looked ready to argue and cut him off. "I'll only be a few minutes, I'll be gone before you get back, I promise." Will stared at Percy for a further few seconds before he furrowed his brows in irritation and threw his arms up in surrender.
"Fine!" He pointed the clipboard at Percy, jabbing it into his chest like a spear. "If you're not gone when I get back I'll get Drew to slip an aphrodisiac in your food."
The colour in Percy's face drained and he looked nervous. "You wouldn't." Will raised an eyebrow and continued to stare until Percy, defeated, added: "Okay, yes you would. I'll be gone, relax Solace." Will savoured the look of fear on Percy's face before he strode off. Percy adjusted his shirt and sighed in relief before he turned to look at Nico. He took in the drip in Nico's arm and the groggy expression on his face and smirked.
"What's Solace got you in for then, Nico?" Percy asked, shifting awkwardly in his seat. Nico averted his eyes from Percy and fixed them on a point on the ceiling.
"Look, Percy, you're here to talk about… that clearly, and I'd rather not." Nico watched as Solace – visible only due to his hair which seemed brighter than his siblings' – bustled around the infirmary, tending to various other patients, occasionally throwing a glance his way. Each time, Nico averted his eyes just in time. "I'm barely okay with it, the last thing I need is someone telling me they're not comfortable with it." Percy shifted in his seat which drew Nico's attention and wasn't shocked to see a surprised expression on the older half-blood's face.
"I'm okay with it. Really," Percy added when Nico raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Why wouldn't I be fine with it?"
Nico shrugged. "You were pretty surprised when I told you. I've never seen you struggle for words before."
"You'd be pretty surprised too if the person you thought hated you told you they used to be crushing on you." Percy countered. When Nico looked confused, he continued. "Yeah, I thought you hated me. After the quest to rescue Artemis and all and then being cold and hostile to me before you set off with the Athena Parthenos and Reyna."
Nico sighed and slumped back against the pillows, mirroring Solace's earlier actions by rubbing his temples to ward off a headache. He looked up in time to spot the son of Apollo throwing a concerned glance his way, looking ready to walk over and get rid of Percy. Nico waved him away and turned to look back at Percy.
"I wanted to hate you, I really did. I couldn't bring myself to do it, though."
"The labyrinth – I remember. You could've turned on me and Annabeth at any point but you chose not to. And then that business with Hades—"
"—I needed information on my moth—"
"—I didn't understand back then," The older half-blood cut Nico off, holding up a hand to silence him. "But Annabeth knocked some sense into me afterwards. Yeah," He caught the confused expression on Nico's face before it vanished. "I told her after Luke died, I wanted her opinion. She told me I'd been an idiot and should apologise but Hera got to me before I could. And now all the hostility makes sense – I guess I understand a little. Just one question."
Nico looked at him questioningly. "What?"
"When did you, like, realise you liked me in that way?" Percy hastily ventured, as if the topic were taboo and he was crossing some sort of line.
"I didn't know then but it was when you saved me and Bianca from the Manticore, Dr. Thorn, at that military school." Percy looked somewhat surprised at Nico's immediate reply, as if he had expecting Nico to be unable to give an exact answer. "I guess they're right when they say meeting heroes is dangerous. So," Now Nico's tone was hesitant and he shifted awkwardly on the bed. "This doesn't change anything?"
Percy shook his head and laughed. "Obviously not. It's just the Greek blood in you, Neeks. Didn't you pay attention to Annabeth whenever she would start ranting about the old stories? The Greeks weren't exactly the most judgemental of people, if you catch my drift. I mean, just look at Zeus and Ganymede or Apollo and Hyacinth."
Nico shook his head in bemusement, a wry smile on his face. "And some people think you're stupid. Unbelievable." He looked up and met Percy's eyes for the first time since he woke up. "Friends then?"
Percy nodded. "Friends."
Nico spent the remainder of the day and the majority of the next watching the Apollo kids tending to various patients that came and went in between brief naps. He found it interesting and engaging to watch how each son or daughter of Apollo would tend to a wound – some would hum as they guided their hands gently over wounds, others would sing a soft melody while others would chant a hymn. Nico noticed that one thing always remained the same: there was always a soft yellow glow around the wound for a brief moment that seemed to sink into the skin and knit any cut closed.
Aside from brief snatches of conversation with Will, Nico had only one other visitor: the small girl he recognised to be Lou Ellen, the daughter of Hecate he had fought beside to take down Octavian's onagers. She had left a suspicious-looking pink orb on his bedside cabinet and left with a wink. He remembered what had happened to Octavian's legionnaires and he didn't fancy the idea of spending the rest of his days as a piglet, so Nico wrapped it up in a cloth and stowed it hastily in the bag he had brought with him, ensuring it was securely tucked underneath his change of clothes. After that, Will had come over to tell him he was free to leave to get some fresh air, but if he wasn't back within an hour he'd send a search party.
It was blindingly bright outside, even to Nico who had spent the last day and a half in an immaculate white room – it was like Apollo was trying to outdo himself, which he probably was, Nico thought. He looked around camp, exchanging nods with passing campers, and spotted a solitary girl at the campfire, prodding the flames with a branch. Nico felt strangely drawn to her, so he decided to go and sit with her.
"Mind if I join you?" He asked, glancing at the girl's face with a friendly smile. The girl looked somewhat familiar: her features were sweet and graceful in an unpretentious way and her warm brown eyes instilled a sense of peace and ease in Nico. With a start, the girl's identity clicked into his mind and he bowed his head to her. "Lady Hestia."
"Nico," Hestia looked up at him and smiled, patting the seat next to her. "A pleasure to see you again, please, sit." Nico nodded and sat next to her, watching as she continued to prod the coals of the fire with her branch. She paused and looked up at him, examining his features. "You're looking healthier than when I last saw you."
"I've got a good doctor to thank for that, my lady." Nico returned her gentle smile and she resumed prodding the coals of the fire to keep it alive and strong. The flames flickered happily. "How're things in Olympus after the war?" The flames in the fire died down slightly at the mention of Olympus and the smile on Hestia's face faltered slightly.
"Not as good as they are going here, evidently. Everything has been resolved, but my brother is still insisting on punishing Apollo for his part in awakening Gaea." Nico wanted to comment on how it was unfair as Apollo couldn't control prophecies but he bit his tongue. If the old tales had taught him anything, it was that openly criticising Zeus was a dangerous idea – suicidal, even. Hestia smiled wryly and prodded the fire again.
"You're quite right, it isn't fair." She said, as if reading his mind – which she probably was doing, Nico realised. "But Artemis has managed to convince Zeus to give my nephew another chance by appealing to his fatherly nature." Nico suppressed a smirk. If Thalia was anything to go by, Zeus was anything but fatherly. A solemn expression crossed Hestia's face and the fires died down slightly. "A quest is coming, Nico, and it's going to be a dangerous one. We have no idea how it'll turn out, as Apollo's powers of prophecy have been blocked, and so have Rachel Elizabeth Dare's."
Nico frowned. "A quest so soon after defeating Gaea? For who?" Hestia shifted on her seat and prodded the fire in the silence, bringing the flames back to a healthy vigour rather than a subdued flickering.
"I'm not sure on the details just yet. My brother is still finalising it all. You'll find out soon though, I'm sure." Hestia turned her head, drawn by the sound of approaching people. Nico too turned his head to look and recognised Kayla approaching and mentally cursed – Solace really had sent a search party. "Stay strong, Nico. You're going to need your strength for the events to come."
Nico bowed his head and pondered Hestia's words. "Thank you for talking with me, Lady Hestia."
"The pleasure was mine." She replied, prodding the fire a final time. When Nico straightened up, she was gone and in her place stood Kayla with a hand on her hip and a raised eyebrow.
"You've been gone too long, Di Angelo. Will said an hour, not an hour and a half. Who was that girl you were talking to?" Kayla asked.
"An old friend of mine." He replied, allowing Kayla to take the lead back to the Apollo cabin. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as if he were being watched so he threw a final glance back at the fire, only to find it was deserted. He thought over what Hestia had said to him in silence, barely registering the scolding he was receiving from Solace for being late back.