Hannah's PoV

The Next Day

Leo Valdez is a certified idiot. Being the asshole I always knew he was, Valdez tried to 'teasingly' take my gloves while quoting some shit line from Frozen. (A/N don't kill me, I love Frozen, I'm not bashing) He's lucky that I kicked his ass before he could. Then he ran off like some kind of kicked puppy, mumbling, "but all da ladies love Leo," which just pissed me off more.

Seriously, Frank and Nico- but mostly Nico- are almost the only tolerable people in this stupid camp. And nobody but me thinks that Nico di Angelo is tolerable. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for him. But I look up to him. He's stronger than I am. He's probably lost just as much as I have, if you think about it. I have no idea, because he's quite guarded, but I have all of these scars to prove how weak I am. He just pulls through. He deals with it. But he has no friends but me, and he likes a guy that he has literally no chance with- even if he claims he's over that guy.

Nico's PoV

One Minute Later

I walked in to find Hannah staring at a wall, presumably solving the mysteries of the world. Or something. She was definitely in deep thought, which the closing door jolted her out of. "Hi, Nico," she smiled at me.

"Hi," I said. "Been keeping your promise?" She nodded.

"It's hard, but yeah." I nodded.

"Thanks." She nodded again. Most of our conversations are nods. We're not exactly social butterflies.

"You're not over him, are you?" she said suddenly. My head snapped towards her. She was staring at the wall still, an absent look in her eye. I couldn't tell what was going on in her head. "You're not over Percy. You still like him. Love him, even."

"I-" I hesitated, at a loss for words. "I'm in the process of getting over him. I don't still love him at all. Hannah- my life is complicated- I don't know if I like him or hate him sometimes- one minute I'd want to kill that dam son of Poseidon, and the next..." I couldn't think of exactly how to explain it, and I looked at her. If I could guess, I probably looked pretty distressed right now. Or dam confused.

"Nico," she said gently, looking me in the eye. "It's alright."

"No, it's not!" I exclaimed, surprising myself. "I should know how I fucking feel about the bastard! It just pisses me off sometimes! I..." I broke off, feeling oddly like I'm about to cry. Which doesn't happen often. "I just want to understand myself." What surprised me is that, when I met her gray eyes again, she didn't look at me like I was a kicked puppy. She had no pity. Only understanding. Then I surprised myself again- I had actually opened up to Hannah. I've told her things Jason and Hazel don't know. I'm letting her understand me. I'm telling her my feelings about everything.

"It's alright, Nico," she said again. "I know. Sometimes it takes a while to understand, to sort out your feelings. It took me a while to process that my father had died."

I choked on a sob that I was trying really hard to hold back. "If I can't understand, I just want someone else to. I want to be fucking ten years old again, with my sister-" I suddenly broke off, and started crying. Bianca on top of this was too fucking much. Hannah was silent, but I could feel her presence there, practically radiating comfort. She didn't move. She didn't look at me with surprise or pity. Just understanding.

"Sometimes you're too wise," I mumbled to her. "You could be a daughter of Athena- you really could." She ignored me, but I know she heard me.

"Nico," she said gently. "You don't mean Hazel, do you? When you said your sister?" she asked.

Dam- now I have to explain about Bianca. I don't want to leave Hannah confused. She deserves answers after doing the insane hypnotism or something that actually got me to tell her this. But I do want to fucking understand myself. That gods dam son of Poseidon... I really don't know. I should hate him- I want to hate him for killing Bianca... but I just can't. I stretched out a desperate hand to Hannah.

"Please," I begged. "Just look at my dam past- I need someone to understand..." I begged her pathetically, looking at her with tear-filled eyes. I probably looked really lame right now, but I didn't care. I want her to know- to understand. To understand Bianca, and how Percy fucking affected every aspect of my gods dam life... this schist is getting to be too much. Nobody knows the complete story but me. I need someone. I really do. And I can't go to anybody else.

I think she understood. The look in her eyes certaintly did. But she didn't take off her gloves, she didn't take my hand.

Then I saw it.

That she didn't want to understand.

Maybe she did- most likely I was just overreacting, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight. I looked hatefully at Hannah without meaning to, my tear filled eyes obviously plaguing her with guilt. "Coward," I spat at her, before shadow traveling back to the Hades cabin.

I found out only too soon how much I would regret that.