Being a son of Apollo, and having the aid of nectar and ambrosia, Will healed my wounds relatively quickly, though he was worried about infection due to my outdoor breakdown.

The checkup went with little to no remarkable incident; in fact, I remembered, he did a similar check when I was grounded to the infirmary for three days.

But it was all over pretty quickly, and I was soon released to go off to lunch. Which means I was released to go stare at a table and pretend to eat more than precisely five kernels of corn, boiled and off the cob.

Occasionally, I could feel a set of eyes on me; almost always Will, though Percy and Annabeth would also shoot me a worried glance or two. It seemed as though the three had been talking about me, and I think it made me mad. I was debating to myself whether or not I was upset about it, and if it was okay if I was.

I was jolted out of my thoughts suddenly with the appearance of Percy and Annabeth at my table. They sat.

"Go on and take a seat," I said dryly.

"Nico," Annabeth started, before trailing off. She looked at Percy, who looked back. She furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head and he responded with some other random body language shit that I couldn't understand, that no one understood, something that seems to only come through the trauma of going through Tartarus with a second person.

Finally, they ended their silent conversation. I was prepared for them to pry; it doesn't mean I wanted them to, I just had short and brittle answers ready.

"Nico, remember when Hazel was IMing you?" she said finally.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"What exactly happened? Like, not what you talked about. But how the call ended," Annabeth asked.

"Mmm," I hummed, thinking. My brows were furrowed. "I can't quite remember. We were bickering, and I turned my back for a second, I believe. And then her voice cut out, and the call was gone."

Annabeth frowned, looking thoughtful. "How do you feel about going to go hunt down Iris, babe?" she asked Percy.

"I'd rather not, but I suppose I have to," Percy said, and I think he was half joking.

I could tell I was no longer needed there, so I waved and headed out of the dining area, booted out of my own table. I snorted at that and wandered off, looking around at the camp.

I wasn't sure what I was planning on doing- maybe go sit in my cabin silently for a few hours- when I heard footsteps, and I whirled around to face them.

Will. Again.

"Haven't you bothered me enough, Solace?"

"Nope," he chirped, completely unfazed. I rolled my eyes. "I was just coming to check on you. How're you?"

I shrugged noncomittedly.

"C'mon, what kinda answer is that?"

"The one where everything is the same," I offered dryly.

The blond boy scruched his eyebrows. "That's not true. Nothing's the same. The temperature is different, your age is different, your position in life- you and everyone and everything around you has developed immensely since yesterday."

I threw him a skeptical glance- something not very difficult considering what he was saying.

"We've had one more conversation than yesterday's number. I've learned that you're extremely persistent. You've learned something, I am sure."

"I've learned that you're a colossal idiot."

"There!" Will cried, accenting the word with a loud clap. "Not everything is the same!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, Solace. Whatever. I'm still not convinced."

"Jesus, you're hard to please," he retorted. I couldn't help but blink in surprise; it seemed pretty out of character, but I accepted it all the same. It was, after all, pretty accurate. I was pretty hard to please. "Hey! I have an idea!"

I raised my eyebrows in fake shock. "Really? Now that is a rare occurrence."

"Ouch. That was cold, di Angelo. I was going to say we should go to the arts and craft center! It's usually empty during free time," the son of Apollo explained.

"That's... actually a valid idea," I admitted. It suddenly hit me, though, as we walked to the building suggested, how different the summer was at the end than it was in the beginning. In the middle, even. I started the summer wandering, or on small visits to the Underworld, or occasionally stopping by New Rome. And trying to avoid Percy, which got progressively harder. And then I went to Tartarus. And I spent several days in a jar. And I got over Percy. And now stuff was almost okay, if only for a little bit.

The arts and craft center, which we had now arrived at, was almost completely deserted, save a few Athena kids, which was unsurprising, given her whole goddess of craft and everything. They were, also unsurprisingly, weaving some stuff.

"What should I do?" I asked Will uncertainly.

"Paint," he responded encouragingly. "It helps me calm down and feel more relaxed. Maybe it'll work for you, too!"

I narrowed my eyes and accepted the challenge. I hadn't painted in ages. And last I did, it sucked.

"Okay."

I got together a small canvas, a palate, a few paintbrushes, and a few paints. Catiously, I mixed paints together and started to consider what to put on the blank space before me.

It was a blur of painting, and soon I was staring at swirls of black and gray and angry screams of red. It suddenly felt as though I were spiralling down into Tartarus again.

"Oh, wow, it's been a little while!" Will noticed, putting down his paints. "A few hours! It's almost dinner!"

"Oh," I said in response quietly. "Let's go then."

Will nodded. "We'll come back for these later.

And we left, myself a little bit more optimistic. Just a little bit.