Sorry this took so long to update. My AP teachers are insane with the homework load.

Edit: I was re-reading this and caught some typos. They should be fixed now.

III

Nico wished that he understood all of these pop culture references.

The crew members waved them through and inside the ride almost immediately. When they reached a certain point, another crew member stopped them so that they could keep those going through both lines at a fair number, since the lines merged into one at that point. Nico stared blankly at the talking robot, who was complaining to another robot apparently called R2D2. He didn't really follow or understand what was being said, so he found himself being pulled into his thoughts.

Nico thought first of the kid from outside, who seemed to have the ability to see through the Mist. The encounter had been weird, and Nico could see the irony in the kid having red hair, much like Camp Half-Blood's Oracle Rachel Elizabeth Dare. He felt sort of sorry for the kid, since his gift was probably going to get him in some serious trouble one day.

Then he got to thinking, what if he wasn't the only one who saw them for what they really were? Demigods, way out of place in this mortal haven. How screwed where they going to be when one of these people turned out to be a monster? The idea that they would get through this day unscathed was almost hilarious. There were too many powerful demigods in one place. They were probably putting off a scent so strong, every monster in Southern California would come flocking to Disneyland.

And then what? They would have to fight. That's what demigods did. Leaving the defenseless mortals to fend against monsters that had been reborn from the festering abyss that was Tartarus wasn't an option. Especially since Percy was here. He was a little bit of the heroic type, even more than most demigod heroes.

Nico glanced up ahead of him, where Hazel and Frank were holding hands facing each other. Hazel's already sparkling eyes were like diamonds, brimming with happiness that came from just doing something normal. No stress about prophecy's or impending apocalypses, just her, her boyfriend, and her friends. Nico sort of wished he could be at her level of happiness, but he couldn't help but get morbid thoughts about how this whole plan could go wrong.

A monster attack would definitely put a damper on everyone else's good mood.

Percy, who had somehow ended up behind him, nudged his back lightly. Nico shifted uncomfortably, and tried to ignore him. Which of course led to more incessant jabs from Percy. Nico tried to force down his irritation and that stupid feeling he always got when Percy showed interest in him, which felt like his heart was doing triple backflips. He finally spun around, giving the surprised son of Poseidon the best evil eye he could manage with all of his conflicting emotions. Percy suddenly looked uncomfortable, like a cornered puppy, which made Nico feel a little guilty, but he held his ground, no matter how cute his stupid face was. He wasn't cracking. Not today. Not ever.

"What do you want, Jackson?"

Percy didn't miss a beat, "You were staring off into space there for a while. I got worried."

Nico tried to not sigh in exasperation. Annabeth was glancing back in forth between them like they were an interesting tennis match. Inwardly, that should have bothered Nico, but he was too busy trying to look annoyed while his body filled with warmth with the idea that Percy could be worried about him.

"Well I'm fine. No need to worry about me," Nico felt a tug on his sleeve, and followed the perpetrator blindly; glad to have pulled out of unwanted conversation. He let Hazel drag him through the line and into yet another room with more Star Wars references he didn't understand. As they passed a robot (he thought they were called droids, but he had never seen Star Wars so he wasn't sure) their body's images were transfigured into different colors on a small screen on the droids left. He wasn't sure what that was all about, but he imagined if he understood what the droid was talking about, it would make more sense.

They moved into a tight hallway as the line split, and on Nico's right, was a neat rack of 3D glasses. He grabbed a pair as he followed Hazel past a crew member and through the turnstile, and found himself standing in the line furthest from the first line. Since there were so many in their group, they took up one line by themselves. In front of them, were sets of futuristic looking doors, waiting to admit them onto the ride. Nico played with his thick blue glasses as scanned his surroundings. Disney seemed to have a thing for tight spaces and fitting as many people into them as they possibly could. He didn't have anything against tight places as a general rule, since they were good to hide it and it was much harder to be attacked when you were hidden well, but all of the people were starting to make him feel nervous. Nico wasn't the only one who seemed to feel this way. A hastily built rubber band helicopter flew over his head, smacking Jason in a controlled flight path. Judging from Leo's cackling behind him, the helicopter had been his doing. He could hear Annabeth scolding him, and Percy joining in on the laughter as Jason turned around and tried to look angry as the happy virus infected him, and instead he was smiling back at them. Jason made eye contact with him, and Nico, suddenly feeling a little trapped, scowled at him. He wasn't entirely comfortable with Jason yet, especially after having such a violating and horrible experience in Split, but he understood that he meant well. That didn't mean Nico had to like it.

Reyna appeared at his side, wearing her 3D glasses like a headband. There was an easy smile on her face, which was good to see. Nico wondered if she had caught the happiness virus too, and then realized that was a stupid thought because happiness was an emotion not a transferable disease.

Reyna glanced at him, "You're thinking about something stupid aren't you?"

Immediately Nico's thought processes went too elephants on a unicycle, which was a bizarre product of his stressed out and panicked brain, and he tried to keep a straight face. Reyna laughed softly, despite his lack of response, and faced forward.

"So since we'll be standing here for a while, how about we play QUESTions?"

QUESTions was this silly game Coach Hedge had come up with while they had been traversing across Europe, when, despite their physical exhaustion, they were too high strung and jittery to sleep. There had been MANY monster attacks that day, more so than usual, so none of them had felt safe enough to sleep.

The idea was that each person would ask the other a question, and they had to answer as honestly has they could. They could abstain if they wanted, which Nico had taken ardent advantage of until Reyna had guilt tripped him into answering. He wasn't one for opening up, but he'd managed to trust Reyna with some pretty embarrassing childhood memories, which had pretty much solidified their friendship. Since then, whenever they were around each other, and bored out of their minds, they would play QUESTions, to pass the time.

"You first," Nico said. He was horrible with coming up with questions. They were both pretty secretive people, so it was hard to gauge what would be acceptable to ask, and what would not. Nico thrust his hands in his pockets as a figure appeared on the screen, going over safety rules and whatnot.

Reyna was a very blunt person, but he was still surprised when the first question came out of her mouth, "So, do you have a crush on Jason or something?"

Nico stared at her like a deer in the headlights. Thankfully the room was noisy, now that the safety announcements were over and people were waiting for the doors to open. No one else seemed to have heard.

Reyna had asked him every question under the sun, from his life before losing his memory to what he'd had for breakfast that morning, but until that moment, anything involving crushes or romance had been strictly off limits. Nico largely suspected that was due to the fact that Reyna was still suffering from being rejected by two guys she'd been interested in, and subconsciously, Nico thought she knew that he would shut her out if she even tried to ask. So he was more than a little surprised.

He didn't even think about his response, "What? Of course not! Why would you think that?" It came out as more of an embarrassed sputtering, and he was pretty sure he was blushing. Why did he get embarrassed so easily?

Reyna gave a small relieved smile, and Nico suddenly realized why she was asking. He didn't voice his thoughts though. If she still liked Jason that was her business.

"Because," the doors in front of them began to open and they followed the flow of traffic into the next room, which was darkly lit and lined with seats. Nico followed Reyna down the aisle and struggled to listen over the noise as they sat together on the right side of the room, away from the Seven.

"Because," Reyna repeated after strapping herself in, "You're acting weird and jumpy around him. I had noticed before, after we all met up again, when they came back from Greece, and you seem to go out of your way to avoid contact with him. Percy too, for that matter. So I just thought…"

Nico forced a laugh that sounded a little gross and more than a little creepy, and cursed himself for being so nervous about something to stupid. He didn't like the way this conversation was heading, and he scrambled for a way to escape. Reyna seemed to catch this, and shrugged.

"It's not any of my business," Reyna whispered to him as a crew member spoke over the intercom, "Sorry I asked."

Nico shook his head, glad that Reyna was perceptive enough and knew him well enough to know when she needed to stop pressing him, "No, it's okay," he whispered back, "You didn't do anything wrong."

Reyna smiled at him kindly and glanced over at the screen in front of them as it started going dark. Even though she was older, and had initially had not trusted him, their relationship had steadily gotten better, now that they had a better understanding of each other. Besides, he was technically older than her by almost a century, (when she had learned that she'd teased him a little, calling him Gramps). There was a trust with her that he hadn't had with any demigod in a long time.

Nico had some momentary confusion when the screen went fuzzy, until he realized he needed to put the glasses on. He forced the glasses onto his face just as their speed cruiser began to move underneath them, mimicking the actions on the screen. Not being grounded and stationary made him feel out of control, but he had to admit, the effects were cool. By the time the bounty hunter had been defeated and the Rebel Spy safely returned "home", Nico had almost forgotten about his whispered conversation with Reyna.

"Welp," Leo stretched when they found their way again into the sunlight, "That was fun, but the special effects could have been way better."

"What more do you want?" Jason asked, "An actual bounty hunter attacking you?"

"No" Leo said, "But those speed racers are cool. I could probably build some if I tried hard enough."

"Please don't do anything of the sort," Piper put a little charmspeak into her words, perhaps subconsciously, filling Nico with the desire to just lie down a not DO anything. For the rest of the day. That would be nice.

Jason noticed and bumped his shoulder. Nico pushed him away the best he could and glared at him, subconsciously rubbing his shoulder where Jason had hit him. Jason just grinned at him, and gestured. The others were leaving, apparently having decided to cross through Frontierland and over to New Orleans Square, where Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion were. The others got lost in the crowed, so Nico found himself practically left alone with Jason. Nico glared at the sunshine reflecting off of various buildings and sunglasses. He wanted nothing more to shrink back into the shadows and… go where? For once, he couldn't come up with a conceivable place he would go. All the people he cared about where here.

Jason pulled him out of his thoughts as they crossed into Frontierland and began picking their way towards New Orleans Square, "You okay?"

Nico sighed, "Why do people keep worrying about me? I'm fine," he sounded tired, even to himself. He wasn't sure how much more one-on-one interaction he could handle. Sure he liked talking to people… but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of why Jason was treating him differently than he had before the thing with Cupid. His face contorted into a frown and he tried to push the memories aside.

Jason was still talking, smiling and in good humor, "Because, silly, people worry about you. It's part of having friends."

"What like you?" Nico felt weeks of repressed anger and frustration towards Jason rising up in his throat, making it difficult to speak, "We barely speak, we have nothing in common, and honestly, before we went on that side quest, would even have bothered to talk to me at all?! No, probably not. So excuse me if I'm not exactly keen to be friends with you." Nico didn't realize he had said that all in one breath until he found himself gasping. Jason had stopped walking, and Nico found himself standing in front of him, inhibiting the flow of traffic no doubt, but Jason either didn't notice or didn't care. Nico sure didn't care.

After what felt like ages, Nico sighed, his anger dissipating, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It was out of line."

Jason shook his head, expressionless, his features reverting to that of a soldier facing a battlefield, "No you're right."

Nico wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but he accepted it and they walked along in silence. After a few seconds Jason stopped walking again and turned to face him.
"But that doesn't mean I agree with you."

Nico almost crashed into the elderly woman in front of him, Jason had stopped so quickly. He hastily apologized and narrowed his eyes at Jason, "What do you mean?"

Jason grabbed Nico's arm, ignoring his protest, and guided him under an overhang. Nico jerked his arm out of Jason's hold and tried to enjoy the momentary respite from the beating sun.

"What I mean is, you're right…. But you're not. Because I don't think we have nothing in common," Jason raised his eyebrows at him, "and I try to talk to you, but all you do is shut me out. You shut everyone out. It's like you have this psychological bubble around yourself that you won't let anyone break through."

"Has it ever occurred to you that I LIKE being by myself?" Nico said harshly. A tourist and her children passed by, glancing their direction, but as soon as she and Nico made eye contact she scurried away.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. You scare people away, and I'm pretty sure you do it on purpose," Jason crossed his arms, but he didn't look angry. More like concerned. "Nico, no one likes being alone. No one. So I don't believe you when you try to prove me otherwise."

Nico didn't plan on retaliating, but the words spilled out of him like a dam was breaking open, "So what?! I've told you before! I'm the son of Hades. People don't WANT me around. It's better to stay quiet and stay out of everyone's way… Even Percy-" Nico's voice caught on Percy's name.

"Percy what? Hates you? 'Cause he doesn't."

Nico scoffed, "Got a funny way of showing it."

Jason sighed, "I'm being serious. I don't know what your guy's relationship was like before, but you've done pretty well in pushing him away too. And if anything he does trust you, even it is a tentative trust. So trying to stop us from trying to reach out and be friends with you is really a losing battle. Not everyone will like you. And not everyone is going to trust you. I can attest to that personally. But you don't need everyone to love you. You just need one person to be there when you need them."

Nico glared at him, "what's the point, it's not like people are going to like me. People don't like death."

Jason smiled, "I like you. I wouldn't be trying so hard if I didn't."

Nico found himself rendered speechless. He didn't know what to say, or how to respond. Fortunately, he didn't have too. Jason just smiled at him, and gestured over his shoulder for him to follow him to the others. As they met up with the group at the border between Frontierland and New Orleans Square Nico watched the others interact. They all seemed to be happy, so at ease with one another. Even Reyna, who had always seemed out of place in the Seven's tight knit group.

As he watched them, Nico found himself wondering if Jason was right.