"Where is he?" Percy mentally asked himself. Suddenly, something touched Percy's shoulder, and before his mind caught up, the son of Poseidon grabbed the wrist (?) and pushed the small body (?) against the wall.
"S-sorry, I d-d-didn't k-know you didn't li-ike b-being touched... I-I'm s-sorry..." A small, squeaky voice came out. The son of Poseidon immediately let go.
"Nico? What are you- nevermind. No, it's fine. I'm just paranoid. I was looking for you and I couldn't find you, so I got worr-" Percy shut his mouth, then opened it again, gaping a bit and resembling a fish. "Forget the last part."
"You were worried about me?" The smaller demigod looked up and the moonlight made his skin look like it was glowing, something that Percy had never noticed before. "Why?"
"Why wouldn't I be? You're like the little brother that I never had," ruffling his hair, Percy mentally snorted. 'Little brother my ass,' he thought, almost scornfully.
"Oh." If Percy caught Nico's slight disappointment, he didn't let it show on his face. " 'Cause the way people look at me here doesn't make me feel welcome. But Annabeth keeps looking at me like I'm some kicked puppy. I swear I'm not!"
"She didn't mean to," Percy sighed softly and knew that the younger demigod knew that something was up, but didn't treat on the subject. Instead he gently touched the green-eyed demigod's arm, not really knowing what to feel.
"So, I heard from Jason that you two're going somewhere tomorrow... Or today. It's past midnight." They both stared at the ticking clock on the wall of the infirmary.
"Something like that... Wait, aren't you going with us?"
"I am?"
"Y-yea, to try and get, you know, your memories back..." He hesitated. Percy didn't know how to talk about Nico's memories like they weren't there, like he wasn't there at all.
"Cool. Where are we going?"
"To the Underworld, to see your father."
"Ha... Hades? The guy that was with me at the river?"
"I guess... What happened there? I don't mean to make you feel pressured, but... We're all trying to figure out what happened to you."
"I remember a gray river, and a tall, pale man standing next to me.. And there was a woman, an old hag," Nico furrowed his eyebrows, as if looking for something in front of him.
"Who?"
"I don't know, that's the thing."
"Well," Percy decided to drop the matter, "we should be getting some rest. We're heading out first thing tomorrow with Hazel."
"?"
"You'll see. But if she hugs you, don't freak out or push her away."
"Okay...?"
Silence.
"Can I ask you a question Percy?" The stated demigod nodded. "Did you not like the kiss from before?"
"H-huh? W-what? This kiss? Um... I-I don't know what to say, Nico, i-it was like umm..." Percy crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. "Cool." 'Nice move, Jackson.'
"So you, like, didn't hate it?"
"N-not at all," he spotted a faint red hue to the half-Italian's cheeks.
"So, uh, see you tomorrow?"
"Yea. That would be nice." And they headed off towards their own chambers, hearts racing, for the day that was to come.
"Nico!" An African-American girl who appeared to be younger than Nico jumped off of a copper-tan horse and hugged him. With a warning look from Percy, Nico awkwardly embraced the golden-eyed demigod and tried to respond correctly.
"Err, hi? Hazel? Nice to see you too?"
"Nico? Don't you... Recognize me?"Percy mentally cussed to himself. Hazel was a sharp one, that was for sure.
"Of... Course?"
"Why are you saying that like it's a question?"
"Because he's suppose to but can't," Jason replied bluntly. With permission from Chiron, he told the daughter of Pluto about Nico's mysterious appearance drenched in water and his memory loss.
"Sorry." Nico cast his eyes down and shuffled his feet awkwardly.
"It's not your fault. Well, I better introduce myself. Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, belonging to Fifth Cohort, girlfriend of Frank Zhang, and your half-sister."
"I would introduce myself but... Is it just me or is that horse eating gold?"
"You four should better get going," Chiron interjected, "It's half past seven." Saying their farewells, they left the camp (Arion bolting somewhere by himself to find some more food.)
"So where are we going?"Jason asked Hazel once they were in a mortal taxi and speeding to a nearby crosscountry-bus stop.
"We need to get to Los Angeles. At the base of a mountain is an opening to the Underworld. With luck, we'll only need a couple hours to arrive at the palace."
"And if we're not lucky?" Percy inquired, munching on a snack bar.
"A few days at most," Hazel said reassuring. Nevertheless, it bothered the sons of the other two Big Three.
"Three days underground, no sky..." Jason muttered, looking out the window of the taxi. An hour later, they were waiting at the bus stop, practically in the middle of nowhere, the single path boarded by forests on both sides. Hazel was telling Jason about the renovation and improvements of New Rome while Percy was dozing off against the bus stop pole. Nico didn't know what to do, and with the lack of thoughts in his head, he stared dumbly at the other side of the road.
Questions ran through his head. What am I doing here? Why did I lost my memories? Why don't I remember anything? What happened? Why do I black out a lot? Why did I.. kiss Percy? He kept running the same questions over his head- until a person appeared on the other side of the road. Not the normal hitchhiker either. Just not there- blink- and then there. What the...?
Nico noticed that different faces seemed to appear, all in agony or wearing an expression of horror, but when he concentrated harder, he could see a hunched over lady. She smiled with missing teeth and waved her hand, motioning for Nico to cross the street. A voice rang in his head.
"Come now, child. I know you want to. It's easy. Come child, come." As if his body started to move on his own, the son of Hades slowly took a tentative step towards the street, and then another, and another. Soon, he was on the street, and could faintly hear screams of his name. It was behind him, all behind him. Nothing was bothering him. It was like he was floating. A narrow tunnel seemed to appear and all he could focus on was getting to the other side of the street. The lady. The tunnel. A flash of light. "Nico!" A girl's shrill scream over the roar of a loud, long honk. More shouts, but this time, masculine. The lady. Still beckoning with her hand, but her grin wider than ever. Light blinding his view.
He snapped out of it.
Blinking again, the lady seemed to disappear, but hearing his name called, he turned his head to the right. The light seemed to be getting nearer and nearer. It was.
A truck was heading towards him and Nico was transfixed, pupils dilated.
Percy yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Nico!"
Nico closed his eyes.
