A/N: I didn't write for two months because FINALS *slams head into desk* Sorry. But now school's out so hopefully I'll update more! Next week will be kind of chaotic because I have to take the ACT and go to NYC for a bit, but hopefully I can write.
Yes, this is a continuation of "F is for Fiddle". I couldn't just break them up without having a fluffy makeup scene! I have not yet gotten ahold of the Trials of Apollo, so until I read it my fic might contradict some of the new information.
This story is a little different from the others because it incorporates Will's POV as well as Nico's. I thought it would be good to see both of their thoughts about the breakup before they worked through their issues and got back together. It is also split into two parts because it's kind of long.
Shout out to The Author for helping me write Percy's dialogue in this. He's actually pretty tricky to write, for me anyway. You should check out her stories on our joint account: TheAthenaSisters.
Disclaimer: If I owned PJO/HOO, I would be a middle-aged millionaire not a broke high school student.
G is for Goat (I)
* NICO *
"Nico?" Piper knocked on the door to Cabin 13. "Do you feel like coming out yet?"
I lay face down on my bed, refusing to answer. Piper would go away eventually, and I wasn't in the mood to come out anyway. Unless Hazel decided to come to New York from California and force me into socializing, I was content to simply rot in my cabin.
"Dude, you can't die in there." Piper said, as though she read my mind. "Just come out for dinner."
"Don't you dare try to charmspeak me," I snapped.
She sighed. "Fine. But Will won't be there. Are you sure you don't just want to come eat some barbecue?"
"I'll think about it. Just go away." I whined, trying to appease her so she'd leave.
She left, and I rolled onto my back.
It had been a week since Will had dumped me in the woods. At first, I had been too in shock to even wander back to camp. The rainy night had passed in some kind of haze, and eventually I ended up back in my cabin at dawn. I was sick for two days, a result of being caught in the rain in my weakened state. Piper had convinced me to go to the infirmary at one point, but Will's icy behavior sent me back to my cabin almost at once. I was accustomed to receiving warmth from the son of Apollo, not the cold shoulder. I had only left my cabin to occasionally hack at a dummy I pretended was Will or to let Piper and Annabeth force some food into me. Currently, I had not left the cabin for a full thirty hours and the girls were getting anxious.
There was a knock on the door. I sighed, and rallied myself to argue with Annabeth.
"Leave me alone, Annabeth," I whined loudly.
"Not Annabeth," Percy's voice was muffled by the door. "Can I come in?"
Percy wouldn't force me into doing things. He had been telling Annabeth to let me be for a while now.
"Sure. The door's open." I called, closing my eyes. I heard the door swing open and Percy walking towards the other bed. The mattress creaked as he sat down. I opened my eyes. "Anything in particular you want to say?" I asked.
Percy was frowning slightly, his green eyes fixed on my face. He was visibly concerned. "I'm worried about you, man."
I groaned. "Not you, too. Why is everyone so concerned about me? Isn't this typical breakup behavior?"
Percy's mouth twitched. "Not for dudes, no. And not when the relationship was only a month long."
"So? I'm not allowed to grieve now?" I snapped.
"Of course you are. Will was your first boyfriend. But you're Nico freaking Di Angelo. Last time I checked, the Ghost King doesn't completely fall apart when dumped. He makes the dumper in question regret dumping him. Ok that sounded better in my head, but the point is you're powerful and scary and you've spent too long sulking about Will."
"What am I supposed to do?" I complained.
"If you miss Will so bad, you go tell him so. If you're still pissed at him, you kick his butt first. He likes you too much to reject you. But you have to stop moping first, and both of you have to swallow your pride." He stood up. "I don't know what you fought about, but I'm dating Annabeth Chase of all people. I can tell you right now that apologizing is a big part of getting past any fight. She and I learned that, plenty of times, and you have to as well."
I stared at him. "When did you get so smart?"
Percy shrugged. "My girlfriend's the smartest girl in camp. Unfortunately, I think it kind of rubbed off. Now stop sulking or next time I'm here I'm going to physically drag you out of this coffin of a cabin." He glanced at the skull replicas on the shelf behind him and shuddered. "See you later, Nico."
I grunted in acknowledgement as he left, staring at the ceiling and mulling over what he had said. Maybe it was time to get over myself and properly talk to Will. Of course, Will would have to feel the same way.
"Nico!" Percy burst back into the cabin.
` I yelped. "You have to at least give me ten minutes!"
"Not that!" His eyes were wild. "Come out here! I think you should see this."
* WILL*
"Solace!"
I jolted awake, startled out of a dream about dark hair and pale skin by Clarisse storming into the infirmary with a nasty gash on her arm.
"Evening, Clarisse," I yawned. "What did that to you?"
"Oh, that's not important." Clarisse waved off my concern. "One of my idiot brothers hit me during sword practice. I'm here about something else."
"What is it?"
"Tell your airhead siblings to stop having their dumb parties, or I will turn one of you into a kebab!"
"Duly noted," I sighed. The tension between the Apollo and the Ares cabins had been increasing as of late, despite my efforts to stop the arguing. "Anything else?"
Clarisse rolled her eyes, grabbed some bandages and left. I slumped back down in the chair I had been dozing in, yawning despite my efforts to stay alert. There was a blanket on the floor. I must have thrown it off when I stood.
When had I dozed off? The clock on the wall told me it was about six in the evening. The last I remembered was it being about three thirty. I sighed. Had no one come into the infirmary in all that time? The blanket gave me the answer. One of my siblings had come in and let me sleep instead of waking me. They had some dumb theory that I was throwing myself into work to cope with dumping Nico.
Splitting with Nico had been unfortunate, but there was only so much moodiness I could take. He was cute, but he was just too different from me for us to really work. I knew that, and I was fine with it. Yeah, it was tough at first, but it had been a week and I had made my peace with it. Nico had even come into the infirmary once, and I had been able to treat him professionally. Everything was fine. Alright, maybe I was working more than usual, but that was because I'd fallen behind while dating Di Angelo. I had to make up for that. My siblings were just being dramatic.
I yawned again, rubbing my eyes. Getting some more sleep wouldn't hurt. I placed the blanket on a bed and started cleaning up the infirmary, not noticing Annabeth until she was standing behind me.
"Will!"
I jumped, cursing in Greek and almost dropping the pile of papers I was holding. "Why are people wandering in here and surprising me today?" I complained.
"Just your bad luck, I suppose." Annabeth said, glancing around the infirmary. "Are you the only one in here?"
"Yeah, it's been a slow day. Which is good." I added. "Listen, if my siblings did something to your cabin I'll just make it up to you myself okay?"
"Hmm?" Annabeth turned back to me. "No, it's not about your siblings. Although I would appreciate it if they turned down the volume."
"Right." I said, making a mental note. "So why are you here? Do you need more first aid stuff? We're nearly out-"
"Not that either, Solace. I wanted to talk to you about Nico." She said.
I stiffened. "What about him?" I asked. I did not want to talk about Nico, but I was too scared of Annabeth.
"I think you made a mistake."
"Really," I deadpanned. A lot of people had been telling me that.
"Yes," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I've known Nico a lot longer than you have. I don't know what you fought about, but I can guess."
"Then you know why it's a good thing that we split up." I said coldly, filing away the papers.
"I understand why you would think splitting up was the solution. That was probably your first fight, correct?"
I thought about it. Nico and I had petty arguments, but that had been our first big fight. "Yeah." I confirmed.
"Then you have absolutely no business breaking up!" Annabeth's voice rose quickly. "Couples get in fights all the time! Do you just give up on the relationship after the first big disagreement? No, you don't!"
I cowered, thrown off by her swift change in demeanor.
"Here's the deal," she told me firmly. "Nico has been moping in his cabin for days. You've been throwing yourself into your work-"
"No I haven't!"
"Yes you have!" she snapped. "Now stop arguing with me! The point is, you clearly miss each other, so I suggest you both suck it up and apologize." She took a deep breath. "You don't understand how much you've been helping Nico." she said, significantly calmer. "When you started dating, he smiled and laughed like he never did before. He became comfortable around people. He needs you. And you need him."
I snorted. "No, I don't. I was fine before I met him, and I can be fine without him."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow at me.
"I'm working on being fine." I insisted.
She crossed her arms and glared.
I sighed in defeat. "Fine. You're right. I'll try to talk to him. I think we both screwed up."
"Of course you did. Boys excel at screwing up. Try dating Percy." Annabeth smiled.
I laughed. "I can imagine."
"Annabeth!" Percy burst into the infirmary, looking completely terrified. Nico was right behind him. My heart lept into my throat.
"Speak of the devil," Annabeth turned to face her boyfriend. "What's wrong?"
"I think you should really come see this." Nico interjected. His face was pale, and he seemed thinner than the last time I saw him. He registered my presence in the room, his dark eyes meeting mine, and my heart splashed into my stomach from my throat, releasing a flock of butterflies.
"Will, you too!" Percy pulled my attention away from Nico. "We might need your healing skills."
"Give me a minute," I grabbed some first aid stuff and shoved into a bag, slinging it over my shoulder. "Let's go."
Percy led the three of us out of the infirmary and to the edge of the woods behind the mess hall. Nico and I ended up next to each other, creeping along side by side.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He was significantly paler and thinner. His hair was messy, and there were holes in his sweater. I wanted to talk to him but I wasn't sure what to say. He noticed my attention and met my gaze.
"What?" he asked roughly, trying to sound tough. I hid a smile.
"I was thinking," I began
"About what? If you say something cheesy like 'us' I will punch out your front teeth," he warned.
I didn't bother hiding the smile this time. "Well, I can't really lie to you, can I?" I said, amused. "But in all seriousness-"
"Look!" Percy interrupted our conversation. Nico threw him a dark look, but I looked where Percy was pointing.
"Is that a goat?" Annabeth asked, disbelief coloring her voice. "You dragged us out here for a goat?"
It was a seemingly normal goat, taking a drink from the creek without a care in the world.
Percy shook his head. "You don't understand-"
The goat noticed us. It lifted its head, studied us for a moment, and opened its mouth. White-hot flames lept from its mouth in our direction.
A/N: Dun dun dunnnnnnn! Part 2 should be up soon. I was trying to avoid making it drag on too long but I think I failed. This is like thrice as long as my chapters usually are. Whoops.
If you have any comments, questions, concerns, compliments, constructive criticism, etc, feel free to hit that review button! I love seeing what you guys think.
~ The Last Narnian
