VI
It was the dining room of Hades' palace and apparently Nico was interrupting something. What time was it even? Suppertime? Crud- he hadn't told Percy he was leaving. Oh well, he'd figure it out.
It would've been okay if it was just Hades, Persephone and a handful of Underworld gods or valuable souls of interesting people or heroes as usual. He'd say hi, apologise for busting in, and they'd let him leave unless something was going on. But no. There was Demeter too.
"Oh look, there he is!" She said when she saw Nico. "Come sit down, you're way too thin. Is Dionysus starving you kids again?"
Nico cursed in his mind a million miles an hour. He didn't want to deal with Demeter and other underworld gods right now.
Not right now, any other time and I'll deal with twice the cereal talk, I'll even eat the stuff if she asks, please… Nico prayed. Then he noticed that Hades seemed to feel the exact same way, meaning this wasn't something optional for either one of them- or Persephone. A hate of cereal unified Hades, Persephone and Nico as the small shaky family that they were. But the second any trace of multi-grain produce was gone they were back at point A.
"No Ma'am. I'm not at camp anyways." Nico said.
"Really? Are you back at living here? You can't get enough vitamins or fibre here, or exercise. Dionysus at least puts you in the strawberry fields- farming builds character whether it's behind a plough or squatting in a field picking berries with your back to the hot sun."
"I'm living in New York with Percy." Nico said.
"City boy, are you? Odd, you seemed to like Camp Half-Blood from what I've heard of you." Nico clenched his jaw and looked at Hades like 'help me, or I'll punch her'. Coping with Demeter was something they helped each other pull through. One of those moments where Nico actually felt like he had a dad, even if it was while standing an aunt.
"Circumstances have changed, Demeter. By those same circumstances Nico needs to leave right now." Hades said.
"Nonsense, the boy has time for a bowl of cereal! Don't you Nico?"
"No."
"Yes, now sit down." Demeter said. Nico sat down, being very clear that he didn't want to be here with a blank look on his face and half-dropped eyelids. A bowl of cereal appeared right in front of him.
"I'm allergic to cereal." Nico tried.
"No you're not, eat." Nico picked up his spoon and ate a spoonful of the stuff.
"I'm allergic to the spoon."
"Nico di Angelo! It seems that Percy Jackson's attitude is rubbing off onto you." Demeter said.
"This is 100% me," Nico said. "Percy wished he had my charming attitude."
"How exactly did you end up living with that boy, anyways? Does he feed you right? Not pizza every night, unless the crust is whole wheat and toppings natural, of course." Nico locked his jaw.
"I'm eating fine."
"Well then stop being so thin!"
"It's hereditary! It's not my fault I'm a stick with legs!" Nico said.
"Nico." Hades snapped.
"Can I please go home?" He asked. "I'm really tired."
"There's sugar on the cereal because you youth of today are only interested in stuffing yourselves with food that you can squeeze the grease from and see the sugar pile on. That helps the computer generation you're part of."
Yeah right, my generation is dead, Lady.
"Tempting- but I'm really okay." Nico said, now desperate to leave.
Demeter never forgot an asked question and it was one that Nico couldn't answer. Why was he in New York? No, he couldn't. Not after his failure. Not after he'd just realised he –the son of the Lord of the dead- was utterly useless to a dying girl.
Demeter shot him a look and soon they were all eating cereal.
"Nico you didn't mention, why did you go live with Percy Jackson?" Nico locked his jaw and his hands balled into fists so his knuckled turned white.
"I followed a friend." He said.
"Your friend," Demeter said. "Who would that be?"
"Sarah Barclay." Nico said.
"Daughter of Hermes?" Demeter asked. That's when Nico realised he was screwed, he should've said like 'Elle Merfud' or something and hoped that Demeter didn't know about every demigod. Or Looney Tunes. Because no way a child of Hermes would willingly ship themselves from Camp to school. That was crazy talk.
"Yes." Nico said. He wondered if the room was lit dimly enough so he could shadow travel from his seat and come back in 20 years when Demeter would have lived it down. He doubted it was. He wondered if it was done on purpose.
"At school?" Demeter asked. "Unlike a child of Hermes, but we are surrounded by exceptions, yes? Is she much different from her siblings? A kleptomaniac like the rest?"
"Yes," Nico said immediately.
"And she's at school?" Nico shifted his weight and ate his cereal. Maybe if he was good she'd leave him alone. He should work on cutting his hair, now.
"Nico?" Demeter asked. Oh he got it… She was trying to make it back to those little cookie-cutter family moments that happened, like, once a year, where they could all stand each other. Nico wasn't in the mood for family right now, or people. Except for Sarah. He really wanted to see Sarah right now.
"She's not in the city for school." Nico said softly and very quietly. If she didn't hear it, it might not be carved in stone as a to-happen and he wouldn't repeat it.
"Family?"
"Nuh-uh."
"Then what?" Demeter asked. The question wasn't rude or annoying –Demeter had her moments where she stopped nagging, then she was decent and Nico actually listened to her- it was sincere, maybe a little even worried.
"She's terminally ill with lung cancer and brain tumours, there's nothing anyone can do and I really should be with her right now." Nico said just as quietly.
Demeter's eyes softened and her lips parted like half a jaw drop. She frowned and turned to look at Hades and Persephone accusingly. Hades shot her a look, Persephone looked at Nico with maybe a little pity and he got tired of this.
"Well, thanks for the cereal; I've got to go now."
Nico sprinted towards the shadow before any of them could stop him, grab his arm, apologise.
Because they weren't sorry.
If they wouldn't save Sarah they were not sorry.
He jumped in the shadows, thought 'New York' because he'd learnt his lesson with random shadow traveling, and landed in his room. It was 2 in the afternoon New York time apparently.
Nico wandered out of his room. Percy and Annabeth weren't there, but there was a note stuck on the fridge.
No clue where you are or when you're coming back, I called your school you're off the hook (you have pneumonia), food in the fridge
-Percy
'Pneumonia' had a million spelling errors in it (he thought) but Nico was grateful to Percy for this. It was cold enough –so cold it should be snowing by now- so the excuse made sense (ish).
He grabbed a container with spaghetti leftovers from the fridge and passed it around his hands. He put it back, he wasn't hungry.
He found a pen and wrote on Percy's note,
Came back, see Sarah- Nico
He threw a jacket on, zipped it up to the very top because it was that cold, swung his backpack onto his shoulder and went out.
The wind was bitter and cold, like a whip made out of ice. Nico thought that if it was a whip, he deserved every hit.
He took the subway and looked at the people around him. When you're so quiet, you tend to look at the loud people. Like the guy talking on his phone super loudly, about his promotion and the importance of his position; or those teenage girls with the fuzzy mittens and coffees? Laughing their heads off, having a good time. They made Nico think of Sarah and her best friend; Alena Hartney.
She lived at camp, but came to the city whenever they could get a ride or Mr D let her come. Nico had shadow-traveled her over once. He should probably do that again at some point. Maybe the next day Sarah had no radiation treatment- that'd be Wednesday… He'd IM Alena later.
He got off a stop early, deciding that he should walk a bit. He'd been in the underworld and he didn't want Sarah to know, and she always could. She said it was the way his eyes reacted to light- it was more violent after he'd just been to the Underworld. He had no idea how she saw it, but he was hoping he could walk it off.
People walked fast, pulling their jackets and coats over their faces, looking down, hands pushed deep into their pockets. Nico was used to cold- he already felt cold inside. Like he was helping the fates snip that string by not doing anything to stop them.
He was thankful when he got into the hospital because the activity distracted him from his own. He got to the oncology ward- where the mood was pretty cheerful. Thanks to the doctors and nurses, and some of the patients like Sarah, they had some good days where you could see a smile on a lot of faces- like the day Dr Squirt had sat on those squirts- a lot of people had smiled even if they were sick.
But today, it looked as if they were decorating for Christmas.
"A tall dude!" A little boy –maybe 6 years old- with a Spiderman bandana covering his head said. "Hey dude- can you hang that up there?" He asked Nico. He and his friend were holding a chain of red and green paper rings.
"Sure," Nico said. He took his end. "Where? Here?" He asked holding it high up.
"Higher!" He said. Nico stood on his toes to reach higher.
"Here?"
"Higher!" Nico reached higher, not sure if he could hold it.
"Perfect! Tape it!" The other little boy said. He stuck a piece of tape on one of Nico's fingers. Nico did and got the other end up too.
"Cool! Thanks dude!"
"No problem." Nico said.
"Common, let's go tell Crystal we did it!" The kid with the Spiderman bandana said.
Dr Squirt was holding up a little girl wearing a neon green wig up so she could hang a paper snowflake from the roof. He was wearing a Santa Claus hat.
"Are you sure it's really tapped on, Lindsay?"
"Yes Doctor Squirt." Lindsay said. Dr Squirt put her down.
"Nice hat, Doc." Nico said. Squirt turned around and smirked a fake smirk.
"Thanks Nico. I'm sure Sarah will make you wear one too."
"Sure, that'll work."
"If you're looking for her, she's in someone's room. She's walking around with her IV, paper and scissors making snowflakes with those who can't come and decorate. It's really sweet of her." Dr Squirt said.
"Thanks Doc."
"Hey tall dude!" Someone called. It was the guy with the Spiderman bandana.
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. We need your help again."
"Oh sure, another chain?"
"Yeah, we made like 20 with Cassidy and Lindsay before Crystal told us that we didn't need all of them." The second boy said.
"Clay, that's Nico, not 'tall dude'. Nico, this is Clay, and his friend here is Tommy." Dr Squirt introduced before bringing Lindsay back to her room.
Nico spent some time with Clay and Timmy, hanging up the chains high up. Patients came in and out to find a nurse to hang paper snowflakes they'd made from the ceiling, give him some more chains or tinsel garlands to hang since he was pretty tall, or go find someone to show their decorations to.
And it wasn't just the little kids. The Children's Oncology ward had kids from 2 to 18, and it seemed that everyone was in the Christmas spirit today. December 1st; you had to love it… Everyone who could walk was decorating and the rest were trying to talk their ways out of their rooms or colouring in bed. Either that, or smiling and humming Christmas carols.
Clay and Tommy stuck with Nico a lot to make sure he hung it just like they would've.
"One day I'm going to be tall enough to hang garlands in the wards." Tommy declared.
He and Clay both had to leave at some points for rest or chemo or something, but they always found Nico- who finally found Sarah.
She was hooked to her IV and she was wearing street clothes again- jeans and a yellow hoody, a scarf with small ducks and soap bubbles wrapped around her head. She was with a little girl with brown eyes, helping her colour a picture of Santa Clause's sleigh.
"What colour should the reindeer be?" The little girl asked.
"Any colour you like. What about blue?" Sarah suggested.
"But reindeers aren't blue!"
"Haven't you ever seen a blue reindeer?" Nico asked from the doorframe. Sarah looked up and grinned.
"Hey Angel," Sarah said. "Cassidy, this is my friend Nico. Can you show him the pretty picture you drew?" Cassidy nodded enthusiastically and showed Nico a picture of a Christmas tree with a big yellow star on the top.
"Wow! Did you do that by yourself?" Nico asked. Cassidy grinned bright and nodded.
"I don't believe you, I think an artist made it." Nico said. Cassidy grinned brighter showing two missing teeth and looked at Sarah with the little kid equivalent of 'OMG!'
"You tell Nico you're the artist in here." Sarah said. Cassidy smiled again and went back to her drawing. Nico kissed Sarah on the cheek.
"How are you feeling?"
"I feel great!" Sarah said, "Like a million bucks!"
"That's good." Nico said.
"I've been walking around making stuff for the whole day, nearly. Cutting out snowflakes, asking the nurses to raid the building for tape, showing the twins of terror how to make chains…"
"Clay and Tommy?"
"Oh you've met them?" Sarah said.
"Yeah, ask them about 'tall dude' later." Sarah snickered.
"Was this your idea? To decorate?"
"Nah, it was Maddy's idea. She said that yesterday; her folks brought the construction paper over and printed out the colouring pages. She's not doing well today though; she hasn't been able to come see everything. I was going to go see her when Cassidy was done colouring. Hang it up and go check on her."
They chatted a bit while Cassidy finished. Sarah cracked jokes and made puns, she used gestures and sound effects like she always did… She only coughed every now and then. Nico could nearly make everything around them disappear and make believe that they were at camp. She was so… Alright. Fine. How could she be dying?
The conversation slipped to and from Cassidy who was busy and full-focused on her colouring.
"Sarah honey, it's time for Cassidy to rest a bit." The nurse called Crystal said, poking in.
"Right." Sarah started coughing and Crystal came forwards concerned.
"I'm good, I'm great, no blood I swear." She said.
"I think you're overdoing it, Sar." Crystal suggested sweetly.
"Me? Pssh, nah, I'm fine. I'm okay."
"Time to go rest. Everyone is, that was an exciting day. I've never seen as many people in the ward doing one thing together. You've done a good job at motivating everyone Sarah, but now it's time for you. Kay sweetheart?"
"Guess so."
"Common," Nico said. "See you Cassidy."
"Bye tall dude." Cassidy said. Sarah snickered and Nico smiled to himself. Oh great, he'd been renamed.
Sarah lay down in her bed and pulled the covers over her.
"You okay?" Nico asked.
"Sleepy." She said.
"Okay, I'll let you sleep in a second, just one thing- do you want me to bring Alena here next Wednesday?"
"Alena?"
"Yes. Alena Hartney… Best friend, girl, face..? Her?"
"Yeah." Sarah said. Her lips smiled as she fell asleep right there. "That'd be really nice." Nico kissed her forehead.
"Sweet dreams Sar, I'll make it happen."
"Love you, Corpse breath."
"Love you too." Nico said.
He crept out of Sarah's room and said goodbye to Doctor Squirt who was looking at an angel holding a candle that a little kid had scribbled in blue.
"They did a good job at decorating, didn't they? Everyone had a hand in it. Coloring, cutting and gluing the strips of paper, hanging…"
"That would be me." Nico mumbled. Doctor Squirt smiled.
"You know you liked it." He said.
"Well… Yes, I did." Nico said.
"It's been a long time since there's been so much life and happiness in here. Since the Easter egg hunt. It makes it seem so much better for all of them, like even if they do die out they'll have lived a little bit more." Doctor Squirt said, deep in his own thoughts. Nico nodded, but the ghosts of what he'd been told were streaming through his mind.
[i]Some die young with their names clear. Others wait old to disappear.
I wish I could help you, but I am not the master of death. I am just a god.[/i]
Nico looked at all the doors of the Child Oncology ward. Clay with the Spiderman bandana, Cassidy with her two front teeth missing and grinning because Nico liked her drawing… All of them. Even the kids he hadn't seen or talked to- because he'd talked to a lot more people than usual that day.
"Good evening Tall Dude." Dr Squirt said squeezing Nico's shoulder.
"Good evening Doctor Squirt."
Nico waited for Percy near the elevator of the underground parking lot. He jumped in when Percy rolled to half-a-stop nearby.
"Where the Hades were you?" Percy asked.
"Places." Nico said. "Here. They were decorating for Christmas. I was one of the suckers stuck tapping the things that had to go high up or hanging the snowflakes tapped to string from the ceiling. Not a bad day."
"Awe, Nico's got the Christmas spirit…"
"Shut up Kelp for Brains."
"If you feel the urge to burst out into Christmas carols Nico, really don't bottle it up; I'm sure you have amazing vocal skills somewhere in there." Percy said. Nico hit him in the arm and Percy laughed.
"So where the heck were you?" Nico asked.
"School. Work. A fantastic combination that I really would love to avoid."
"Sucker, you're the adult." Nico said. Percy punched at Nico without keeping his eyes off the road.
"And I'm the one who's in charge of you legally right now, so you should be way nicer to me."
"Nope." Nico said popping the 'p'.
"Think of all the mean things I can do."
"Think of all the mean things I could do back. Face it, no matter what my record at school or Chiron says, you're not really in charge of me."
"Okay, maybe, but no more going to freakish places without telling me. Would it have killed you to?"
"Yes."
"Just write a note or yell it out before shadow-traveling. You know I don't really care where you go and I don't stop you, so just so someone has a clue where you're at."
"I'll tell Annabeth."
"Why?"
"Because she can't stop me seeing as she doesn't live nearby."
"You seriously suck sometimes."
"Thanks, I aim for that."
That night Nico kept a promise to Sarah and went through homework.
First off; he IM'ed Alena at camp.
She was recovering from Capture-the-flag, sitting at the Central Green with her boyfriend Julio Delahantry, a son of Demeter that Nico didn't really talk to, and his friend Erik Cryer- a son of Aphrodite that nobody really liked and that got teased to the full potential of his name.
He wrapped an ace bandage again and again around her wrist, and Alena was talking about something that had to do with bugs (which she loved) to Julio.
"Alena." He said. They turned to look at him.
"Hey, look it's Nico di Angelo!" Alena said. "How you doing? How's Sarah doing? Is she feeling okay even if –well- yeah, whatever."
"Sarah's doing okay. She was sleeping when I left; she helped them decorate the whole ward for Christmas." Nico said.
"Oh that's cool." Erik said.
"Why you calling? You missed us?" Alena said.
"Not a chance, you guys are nuts."
"Says Sarah's boyfriend." Alena said.
"Do you want to shadow-travel to New York on Wednesday? She'd really like that." Nico said.
"Oh really Nico? That's sweet! Thank you so much! I'll meet you at Zeus' fist at 2:45, what about it? You finish school at 2:30, right?"
"Why do you know everything?" Nico asked. Alena stuck her tongue out.
"Just meet me there, and tell Sarah I'm coming, okay?"
"Sure thing." Nico said, before the IM was cut.
Second: homework.
A page of math that nearly completely killed his brain and that English assignment, the yucky one about emotions again. Nico purposely avoided the 1 ½ inch binder while scanning his bag. A sign to have a parent or tutor to sign for a field trip to the Art museum…
Art was better than math even if Nico had had it shoved down his throat by Rachel.
Nico wandered out of his room yelling out, 'hey Percy, you're my legal tutor, right?' but he heard Percy talking and shut up. He peaked into the kitchen and saw Chiron sitting at the Pinochle table on the Big House porch, the setting sun tinting the sky odd colors and casting long and narrow shadows on the ground behind him.
"Yeah, he sees her a lot, but he still does his homework and sees people, and trains."
"How is he handling the news about her?"
"I don't know. He's not really 'expressive' is he? He got better, I think. He calmed down a bit but not over it I think."
"Of course not, Percy." Chiron chided. "Be patient with him. He's living through something very hard."
"Well, it's not like I see him around that much. I'm food, shelter, chauffeur service, and when he needs me to sign something or show up for teacher meetings."
"Nico's got an independent streak."
"Hey, was I complaining?" Percy said. "I don't know, I just wish I could help him."
"You are, Percy. You're giving him the chance to see Sarah; you're letting him deal with this on his own. Until Nico realises he's not alone, that's all you can do."
"When's that going to happen?"
"Percy, you're mistaking me for an encyclopaedia on demigods."
"Well, you basically are."
"Yes, but you're all different. You all deal with things differently, you all live differently, come from different places and your paths are all different." Chiron said. Percy nodded.
"So- keep it like it is?"
"Yes. How is Sarah?"
"She's good. Funny, stealing stethoscopes from doctors, cracking jokes- you know, being Sarah Barclay. I think that bugs Nico. She's so herself he can't wrap his mind around the fact that it'll change."
"Probably right… How is she doing?"
"She was up and about today, doesn't seem too traumatised from what Nico tells me."
"Hmm…" Chiron nodded. "And you? How's Annabeth?"
Nico retreated back to his room.
Really? Really guys? They were seriously watching over him to make sure poor wittle Nico wasn't emotionally scarred or whatnot while they should be worrying about Sarah?
Maybe they did have a point, some part of him said. Maybe he was taking this worse than Sarah. Was it so hard to accept the fact that she was being ripped from his life like Bianca, his mother, and everyone else he'd ever truly loved?
Yes.
No; they had no point, they were making a fuss out of nothing. Nico's eyes unconsciously drifted to the 1 ½ inch binder, then back.
Percy and Chiron shouldn't be worrying about him. He could deal with himself, he could deal with that ward and the people inside it, he could deal with Sarah dying on him when they'd promised nothing could ever separate them. When they'd promised that they'd always have each other. They'd been best friends, and that wouldn't change because they were a couple. The memory always comforted him, because things had gone up, down, down, down and up again.
And she remembered the first day that Nico kissed her.
It was late at night, and the light came from the glowing green flames of cabin 13, Apollo and Artemis' cabins and the light from cabin 12, who'd thrown any 'no, we're not having a party right now, why would you think that?' precautions out of the window for the last one of the year.
Everyone was bussing or taxiing or whatever back to the City the next day. Mr D seemed to still have a bit of his former not-sober-self inside of him, and was letting it fly. Chiron just knew better than to stop them now. He was going to let the demigods have their fun (which they were).
It was the year after the Titan War, but you wouldn't guess that by the atmosphere of camp. Camp was like it always was. The summer night was cool and a nice breeze was blowing through camp. It brushed and ruffled the leaves on the trees and turned the rusty bronze eagle weather vane on the Big House. It disturbed some monster who howled in the woods.
Not very many people had snuck out of the party. For one; Cabin 12 parties were the stuff that Camp talked about for a record of 1130 years, and not-a-hiding-party was the stuff of legend. If you missed something, it would suck to say 'no, I wasn't there when they put the 2L of coke with Mentos down someone's pants, I was walking on the beach'.
But Nico and Sarah had. They were sitting on the roof of Hades' house which gave them a good view of Camp. They heard the music thumping from the party and they heard voices. The door was flung open, inviting everyone 13 and up inside. A child of Mars (who'd probably lost a game of rock-paper-scissors or I'll-swing-my-sword-and-whoever-I-hit-loses) was standing outside chasing away the little kids who wanted in.
There actually wasn't anything PG13 in there, but it made everyone feel special (especially the newly-turned-13-year-olds, like Sarah and Nico, although they were used to these parties- when your closest friend is the closest sister of the Stoll brothers you get places. Cool places).
Sarah was lying down with her feet propped in the gutter. She was a pro at keeping her balance on roofs; she'd spent a lot of time on roofs for various reasons. Nico was sitting up, and the way the moonlight flashed on her relaxed face, the way part of it was still in the shadows… It made Nico realise that she really was cute.
"You're sure this is allowed?" He asked.
"No," Sarah said. "What do you think I was doing during the Orientational film? Listening? Please," she said. Nico smiled.
"Okay, what were you doing?" Nico asked.
"I was digging out the foam from the couch, which children of Hermes have been doing forever."
"But… The couch in that room is stuffed… Fully..."
"You figure that one out, di Angelo." She said propping herself on her forearms.
"I rather not, thanks."
Sarah laughed. "Do you want to know? I think you're macho enough to find out."
"Please no." Nico said.
"Oh common! There's less than 9 legs to it too…"
"Stop talking." Nico said shaking his head, with a smile on his face.
"Make me." Sarah challenged. And just like that Nico kissed her.
He was surprised. She was surprised. Then she relaxed and kissed him back, then he realised he was kissing Sarah Barclay. He got super happy and finally their lips separated and they starred at each other, and Sarah had a shy smile. Nico was pretty sure the one on his lips was a million times worst.
"Well that's one way of doing it," Sarah joked. "I like it a lot better than duct tape."
They'd hung out for the rest of the evening until the party dissipated at, like, 2 in the morning when Chiron made with warning that every staff member of the staff couldn't sleep and that they'd probably die if they kept going.
Sure, it had been the awkward stage after that. They were skirting around each other- wondering if they were expected by the other to hold hands, kiss again or what.
Finally in about March after that, Sarah stalked up to Nico when he was alone trying to figure out where to hide so he'd escape dinner and therefore the campfire, and said 'Are you going to kiss me, or am I going to kiss you, because not being around you is hell, corpse breath'. He kissed her again (which answered the question), but Connor so-happened to be sitting in a nearby maple tree, and even by Camp Half-Blood standards the news traveled fast and everybody knew and blah, blah, blah. That sealed the deal, which Nico and Sarah did with a kiss. And it hadn't changed much since.
Until 2 years ago. They were 15 then. 17 now. They'd been past the friend stage for 4 years, but 2 of them were spent in a hospital. He wondered if those still counted. They should count twice as much for Sarah still making the energy to see him, Nico thought. But that would be it apparently; 4 years.
