Chapter 2

Thanks for the review, it means a lot!

This chapter will introduce the reason behind the title and include the beginning of the long plot that can't be completely covered before the release of the House of Hades. So there is one Nico x Leo fluff which the fangirls may find interesting, but this isn't a Nico and Leo fanfic, and Frank will make more of an appearance here.

Third Person POV

Leo was standing in the kitchen, drying and putting away all the dishes from lunch when he yawned for the hundredth time today.

"Hello" a voice startled Leo. He turned around to see Frank sitting there.

"What are you doing here?" Leo asked, trying to show his startled emotion. Frank's eyebrows shot up and smirked.

"I decided to sit here and wait for dinner." He responded. "Is there a problem with that?"

Leo looked at the clock, "it's only three o'clock. Dinner's three hours away from now."

"And your point?" Frank asked. He rested his arms on the counter. Leo was wondering what he was up to. Frank would never be willing to sit in a room alone with Leo knowing that Leo could wield fire, especially when Leo was in the kitchen. Maybe Nico told him about the other day and told him to make sure I don't talk about the things that were my fault again, He thought.

"Well," Leo said. "I thought you were going to hang out with Hazel."

Frank's expression softened into a small smile and replied, "I'm - how would I say this – actually tired of hanging out with her"

Leo frowned and set the dish cloth down. The way Frank said her made it seem like he absolutely hated Hazel for the moment, but Leo knew it was impossible. They obviously loved each other. Why would Frank say that, Leo wondered.

"But you guys barely hang out," Leo replied unsteadily. "I thought you didn't have enough time together."

Frank looked at him questionably. Frank wondered how oblivious he really was. Everyone on the ship had been doing nothing but clinging to one another since they all had started their journey. "You could even ask Hazel, and she'd probably say she's tired of hanging out"

Leo placed one of the dishes in the cabinet when he turned to Frank with a slight smirk. "I don't think you would like that"

"Like what?"

"Me talking to her" Leo replied reaching for another clean dish to put away. "You give me a death glare when I even ask her a simple question, like what she wants to eat for breakfast or something."

Frank laughed nervously. "Well… That was before, right?"

"You just gave me one yesterday when I asked if she had any suggestions for the steaks I cooked" Leo smirked as he finished drying some more dishes and cups. "I had asked if I needed more seasoning, and you had a smug look on your face that made me think you wanted to season then cook me on the grill and feed me to a hellhound.

"Well…" Frank tried to explain, and Leo chuckled.

"It's fine, I understand. I guess I have to remind myself to make hearing aids so I don't have to lean towards her mouth to hear her." Leo smiled.

"Hey Frank you in here?" Someone asked opening the kitchen door. Leo glanced to see Jason standing there in the doorframe.

"Yea?" Frank answered back.

"Sup," Leo said to Jason, returning to the dishes shortly after.

Jason walked in a bit and asked, "Hey can you come outside for a sec? Piper and I needed to ask you something."

Frank stood up and waved to Leo, "I'll be back" which reminded Leo of that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie he had once watched with Piper at the Wilderness School. Leo continued drying some of the utensils as he watched the door slowly closed, the idea of him being alone again finally sunk in. Oh well, Leo thought. It's not like I'm not used to the eerie silence.

Leo shrugged and grabbed some of the plates that hadn't been washed on the counter. He just turned on the water when he heard the door open. Assuming that it was Frank, Leo replied, "That was fast."

"What?" A different voice answered back. Leo turned to see the son of Hades standing there.

"Oh, I thought you were Frank. Never mind, what did you need?" Leo asked as he scrubbed the dishes.

Nico sat at the stool Frank was sitting in, and grabbed an apple from the basket of fruits sitting there. He took a bite out of it and replied. "I was just bored sitting in my room. I thought maybe we could discuss the doors or something."

Leo placed the clean dish in the other rack, and turned to face him. "Yea, sure. What about it?"

Abruptly, Nico stood up and walked into the kitchen and Leo realized the immense and strong aura surrounding him that even made Leo a tad afraid. "It thought maybe we could talk a bit more about something else that just the Doors of Death."

Leo was suddenly overwhelmed at how close Nico was standing next to him. "Wha-what do you mean?"

Nico leaned in and replied with a deep and powerful voice that made him stop dead in his tracks. He remembered Frank or someone say that Nico had this dangerous presence that was only surpassed by Hades himself, but Leo didn't know what to do. "Tartarus" (A/N Sorry fangirls…).

In an instance Nico stood back and smirked. Leo blinked a few times before he finally moved. "Uh, yea sure," was all he could manage to say.

"It's obvious that you know about the doors, yes?" Nico took another bite of his apple. "The whole, both sides need to be closed thing"

Leo paused for a second before replying, "Yea…"

"Well, let me just get this straight, you are not going to close the doors from the inside, Valdez" Nico said smugly before taking another bite of his apple.

Leo froze again, wondering how Nico had figured that out so quickly. Sure it was a bad idea, Leo wasn't going to lie, but it was the best option right? Or that was what Leo thought. Nico however didn't think so.

"I know what you're thinking, and it's not happening. I don't care what you have to say" Nico said with his apple raised highly as if a toast.

"Ho-How did you know?" Leo managed to ask. "I never told you about it."

"You didn't have to. Your charts and diagrams explained it all," the corner of Nico's mouth perked up. "'Pros and Cons of closing the doors' is very subtle you see, especially with every one of our names on them."

Leo had forgotten about them. He thought he had hid it before he had started dinner. Wait, Leo thought. He was in my room.

Before Leo could even respond, Nico had shadow travelled back to the chair, continuing to enjoy his apple. "Listen," he said before taking another bite. "Let me tell you something about Tartarus Valdez."

It's a very dangerous place. If I doubted Percy and Annabeth – both very powerful demigods could return, there is no way someone like you could make it through that hell hole. And despite me being the Ghost King, I can tell you that that pit is way worse than my dad's kingdom. It was in a whole other dimension from the underworld – a hell inside a hell. A place where hellhounds and minor mythical creatures could barely stand to be in." Nico went on.

"And I don't mean to be rude when I say someone like you. You aren't as scrawny and weak as you look. From what I heard, you defeated some Cyclops all on your own and had the smarts to build this ship and other pretty rad gadgets. But even someone as smart as Athena or mechanical like Hephaestus couldn't make it out of that place. I barely made it out with the skin of my teeth. And I personally don't know how Perce and Annabeth will be when they escape. It may not seem like it but, it tears you down. I'm not the same person I used to be. If Percy was here, he'd tell you the same thing. I'm not the same anymore. And someone like you who has been through your own hell would never be the same anymore. And yes I do understand what you've been through. I already told you – We've all been through hardships. It's just the way you react to them. I remember a quote like that from Annabeth. If you went through that, you wouldn't laugh – not even smile again.

It tears you apart like nothing else could. It's like your bones become nothing but strands of fiber and your brain becomes nothing but mush." Nico realized he had just been rambling but he didn't care. He needed to make a point. No matter how long it took, he was going to get this through Leo's head. Nico paused since he had never spoken this much and took a bite of his apple. This was as tiring as summoning the dead, he soon realized.

"Even if you get out alive, you won't feel like it." He said. "Despite me being the ghost king, and able to explore the underworld with no problem, not even my dad could help me. You wouldn't believe the things I've seen down there."

Leo, during the whole thing just looked down, suddenly ashamed he had even thought about closing the doors himself. He didn't want his brain to turn into mush. He didn't want to be alone in there with no help from even the god of the underworld himself. Even though Leo was always alone, the thought of complete absence of communication kind-of scared Leo. As he tried to hid his shame he picked up another pan and slowly dried it.

"Valdez, I've always seen the dead, but the dead down there is something worse. The balance of the underworld and Tartarus is off. People who were granted Elysium were in the depths of Tartarus with this kind-of face I've never really seen before. I've seen innocent half-bloods and people that I know personally stuck in Tartarus." Nico continued. "People like Silena, Beckendorf, Michael, even Luke…"

Leo didn't know these people, with the exemption of Beckendorf and he knew the name Silena from Clarisse, but the way Nico said Luke seemed strange. He never really heard the name at camp and the way he said it seemed like it was a bad and good thing that he saw him there.

"There were even people that I didn't know who knew me. I saw Thalia's mom, Piper's grandfather, Sammy, Hazel's mom, Frank's grandmother and mom, and even a lady named Esperanza." Nico frowned and took another bite of his apple, waiting for Leo's reaction. His grip on the pan loosened but he quickly gripped it tighter. It's a coincidence, right? There's no way Nico could've found her right? Leo thought. There's a ton of people with that name that happen to be dead as well, right?"

Nico noticed his shock and smirked. He quietly stood up when Leo finally found his voice. "She wasn't…"

Nico shadow traveled so he was right behind Leo, his chest nearly touching Leo's shoulders as he leaned towards his ear.

Leo was still so paralyzed from what he had said; he barely recognized the strong presence of the ghost king standing right next to him. Nico smiled playfully and whispered in his ear, "'Nothing is unfixable, mijo' is what she told me to say to you, Valdez."

In an instant, Nico shadow travelled to gods knows where, and Leo was left there with this more shocked expression than before. As he dropped the pan with a loud thud, he was vaguely aware of Frank's voice asking if he was alright. Leo didn't care though as he fell to his knees, hiding his face and silently cried to himself.