Chapter Summary: Nico works his shit out (with a little help from friends, family, and a fictional pirate captain).
Notes: This is my favorite chapter yet! Please let me know what you think. Love? Like? Growing on you? Fungus on your shoe?
XxxX
"I am glad to see you are safe. That you've decided to take your place as head of my cabin here at camp."
It could be Nico's imagination but he swears Hades sounds almost relieved. If ever there was a time or place where Nico felt safe enough to come out to his father, this was it. But he suspects it may not be necessary. Perhaps Hades already knows. Maybe that's what his dumb dad jokes about interior decorating all allude to.
Nico takes a deep breath. It doesn't matter what his father thinks or not, what matters is that Nico tells him because he wants to, because he's ready. "Father," he says, then takes another shuddering breath. "I'm gay."
I did it. Short, to the point, honest.
It's as if he's set down the weight of the world and stood up too quickly, whooping with his newfound freedom. Way too light. Killer vertigo. He sits back down on the side of his bed, holding on to the edge with his hands.
Hades hasn't said a word, not a peep. Nico hadn't expected to render a god speechless. Shit. Is it that big of a deal?
He chances a glance at his father and about faints at the sight that greets him. Hades is wiping tears from his eyes with his shroud of death. He's getting snot all over it. Even the souls woven into the fabric look like they want to shrink away from the godly secretions.
It's another long minute before Hades finds his voice. "Thank you for telling me, Nico. I'm sorry that …" Hades looks up at the ceiling of the cabin and waves his hand, shrouding the place with a curtain of darkness. "I don't care to share this conversation with my brother." He clears his throat and Nico's struck dumb. His father does not do this. His hand finds his sword handle and grips it tight. Hades laughs. The walls shake.
"You must think I'm an imposter." He reaches out a finger and touches Nico's forehead with its tip. In a flash Nico witnesses his father's anguish, recognizes that he is who he says he is, revisits the countless battles amongst the brothers – Hades always fighting to keep his children safe, and always losing – finally retreating to the Underworld home he's built where his palace will provide a sanctuary from Zeus's wrath should any of his children need it. And then he lost the last of them.
Hades withdraws and Nico stares at him, stunned.
"I apologize for saying your sister Bianca, would have been my choice to remain living of the two of you. I was grieving and bitter. But you've done what no other person – god, goddess, or mortal has been able to do – you helped me to stand again. Love whom you will, Nico, but do it. It heals more than any other force that exists." He waves his hand again and lifts the darkness from the ceiling. Then clears his throat again.
Nico swallows and then nods. He gets it. This conversation needs to not be shared – his father revealed his weakness – but really it's his strength.
"I uh … Apollo …" Nico stammers, trying to find a thread of thought he can follow while his mind is blown.
Hades shakes his head ever so slightly. Okay, so they can't talk about the line of prophecy Ella spoke or even what sort of punishment Will's dad is facing. Nico wracks his brain. There's something else he needs to ask that only Hades would have an answer for. But after the slip in Hades's mask, Nico can't recall it. Until it hits him like a blow to the head.
"Time to fly boys and girls. Uncle Leo's still got a few tricks up his sleeves!"
"Leo Valdez!" Nico says, louder than he'd meant to. "I mean. I sensed his death, but I don't sense him anywhere in your realm."
Hades seems to sag, though it's so slight, it could just be a play of the shadows. "I don't have an explanation. He was in the Underworld and now he isn't." He frowns and then grumbles. "Thanatos still hasn't returned my email inquiry."
Nico has the strangest image of Leo on his way to meet death, reaching into his toolbelt, greasing himself up with WD-40, and slipping out of Thanatos's hands like one of those water weenies they sell in gift shops. He can't help but smile at the thought.
Hades chuckles. It's disconcerting. "You ought to do that more often."
"What?"
"Smile. It's refreshing to see." And with that Hades disappears into nothingness and the Greek fire torches return to their normal burning levels.
Nico's glad his father didn't stick around fishing for a returned compliment. He can't honestly say the same thing about Hades's smile.
XxxX
Nico strips down to his boxer shorts, and hangs his clothes up in the closet. Annabeth had installed one of Daedalus's inventions in each cabin, a set of clothing hangers that clean your clothes while they hang overnight – at least when he remembers to hang them up.
He crawls into bed and pulls the book from under his pillow. Somebody's looking out for me. What are the chances I'd pick up a romance novel about pirates? He enjoys the quick read, the clever banter, and manly men in pirate garb strutting their stuff. Despite the flimsy romance – there's totally more chemistry going on between Captain Delancey and his cabin boy than with the barmaid they've taken prisoner – it takes his mind off what he's going to say to Will when they get a chance to catch up. The stupid bit of fiction too, sort of, in his own way, helps him process his own feelings through Delancey's eyes. Dreams – the sort where he's not having horrible visions – are good for that. As he falls asleep, he wonders if Will would understand.
XxxX
He opens his eyes to the sound of Jason and Percy banging on his door, and despite being tempted to ignore them, Nico's awake.
"Hold on a sec!" he hollers, climbing out of bed and answering, rumple-haired and sleep groggy.
"Dude!" Percy says, and then, in a very bad impersonation of Coach Hedge: "Put some clothes on!"
It cracks Jason up and maybe even coaxes a smile out of Nico. A small one. And then he recalls the bone he has to pick with Jason. He frowns, facing him, unperturbed by the fact Jason has a good six inches on him.
"Grace, you want to explain what you were up to the other day, poking around my cabin while I was sleeping?"
Percy raises his hands like he's burned them. "I'm staying out of this one." He jumps on one of the empty bunks and bounces around on his butt to get comfortable, like he's getting ready to watch a sparring match.
Jason flinches like he's waiting to see if Nico's going to start wailing on him. "It wasn't like that. Please calm down. I knocked on your door for three straight minutes. Chiron said you took an impromptu trip to Camp Jupiter, and I just wanted to hear what's happening over there. I swear, I only poked my head in to see if you were still sleeping and … and …" He stops talking, pauses. "And that's it." He jerks his head, reminding Nico of Percy.
Nico feels like the blood has left his face.
"Aww, c'mon … what?" Percy says. "Why can't I ever know what's going on?"
Nico's palm hits his face. What did I ever...
"Oh … did he catch you with your hand down your pants?"
... see in that guy?
Jason laughs out loud. "Nah, nothing like that. It was cute seeing him all snuggled up, this adorable dreamy little smile."
"Jason ..."
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"I'm shutting up now."
"So, how're Reyna, Hazel, and Frank?" Percy asks.
Nico figures he ought to tell them the truth about shadow-traveling over there and nearly killing himself, because if they decide to send an Iris message, they'll probably find out about it anyway, but that means outing Will. The idea doesn't sit well at all with him. Actually, it makes him realize how much he doesn't know about Will Solace. Where he's from, his family life, if he's open about being gay. He decides to change the subject.
"They're okay. But there's something bigger that I want to tell you guys."
Jason's eyes widen and Nico shakes his head subtly, as if to say: nothing to do with that, idiot. Jason relaxes and sits on another empty bunk.
And then Nico's suddenly extremely aware he's only wearing his boxers. "Give me a sec."
He grabs his clothes and takes them into the bathroom, not quite able to keep from smiling when he sees the shower. He and Will had only showered after their last 'incident', but there may have been some shared back scrubbing and shampooing ... his scalp tingles at the memory.
Cool your jets, di Angelo. They'll want to hear about Leo … there's time for the other things later.
He joins Jason and Percy as they take turns trying to outdo each other making armpit farts. They're falling over themselves laughing and Nico wonders what it's like to be so carefree all the time. Not that Jason and Percy haven't had their fair share of troubles, but it's really good to see them enjoying each others company so much. Nico sits on his own bunk and clears his throat.
"My dad visited me last night and I asked him about Leo …"
Jason and Percy immediately stop goofing off and turn their full attention on Nico.
"Dude … seriously?" Percy asks. "He's alive?"
"I don't know … I felt him die. Even Hades said he was in the Underworld, but he's just not there anymore."
"It has to be the physician's cure!" Jason jumps up and punches the air. "That's my bro Leo; he's got the moves. He figured out how to give it to himself or something … damn. I wonder where he is right now, when he'll come back."
Percy's unusually quiet. They look at him. After a minute of intense thinking, or perhaps it's gas, it's hard to tell with him, he speaks.
"I think I know where he is, or at least, where he went. Not sure if he's still there, or hell. Time is even different there."
"Percy," Nico interrupts. "Where are you talking about?"
"Ogygia. He went to rescue Calypso. It's what he would do."
"Wow. Do you know what this means?" Jason asks.
Percy and Nico shrug.
"Leo's like the biggest hero of us all. He's so runty and unassuming, just sort of slips in and blends with a crowd, but he's the one who worked out how to defeat Gaea. Then figured out how to convince us to go along with it, without telling us the whole plan, 'cause he knew we'd try to stop him. And then he went back to rescue Calypso. I mean … how many heroes have promised her they'd come back, that they'd make her situation better?"
"Um … Jason?" Nico shifts his eyes toward Percy and Jason seems to realize how bad that sounded.
"I didn't mean you personally, Percy."
"I got it." Percy snaps, then softens. "I'm just glad she met Leo. I'm a little surprised actually. He doesn't seem like … well, not to sound bad, but I'm sounding like it anyway. Man, I suck …"
"Spit it out, Jackson," Jason says.
"He's not her usual type," Percy admits, grimacing.
"I think," Nico says, pensieve. "People don't really know what their type is until they meet them. Then it's obvious."
"Speaking of which … when you said I'm not your type," Percy starts. Jason's eyes boggle and Nico has a headache. "What did you mean? Like, you mean you found your type and then, ohh! So you found your type and then realized it's not me, so that's why you told me that! Look at me go … I'm catching on!"
Jason and Nico exchange a look, then Jason cocks an eyebrow.
"No way," says Percy. "Don't tell me it's Jason. I don't know if I can deal –"
"Nico?" another voice calls from the door. It's Will.
Nico rolls his eyes at Percy and then calls to Will over his shoulder. "Come on in."
"How're you feeling to– Oh, sorry. Didn't realize you had visitors."
"It's okay. They're my friends," Nico says, an odd rush of affection running through him at the statement. It just rolls off his tongue easy peasy and is totally true. He smiles at Will, not even thinking about whether or not it's his creepy smile.
"'Sup, Solace?" Percy says.
Will shrugs effortlessly. He's holding a rolled up magazine. "Thankfully not a lot. People seem to be slowing down on hurting themselves lately. I'm not complaining." He doesn't take his eyes off Nico. "You look good today, rested."
Nico realizes he probably looks like a complete boob: smiling, lovesick. He ducks down to fetch his shoes from under his bunk and works at putting them on.
"What have you got there, Will?" Jason asks.
Will turns to him and grins. "It's an Ikea catalogue." Nico's face burns. "Nico said he wants to redecorate. I doubt much of it is his style, but there might be some ideas and you know," he shrugs. "I know people who are good at designing."
"Ohh …" Percy says then, just as Nico sits upright. "You mean Will's your type!"
Nico glowers at Percy. If ever there was a time Nico wanted to silence another person's voice, it would be now. Fortunately Jason saves the day.
"Come on, Seaweed Brain. Let's see what Annabeth's up to."
"But I already …"
"Percy …" Jason leaves off the incredulous Seriously? But Nico's sure every one of them catch it.
"What? Oh right, shit … Just a sec. Will, can I talk to Nico a minute. Seriously, just real quick?"
Will laughs, easygoing. "Hey you don't need to ask me, you need to ask him."
"It's fine, Will," Nico says. He calms himself. It's not that big a deal. Will's cool. He's not judging anybody.
"I'll hang with Grace on the porch," Will tells Nico.
They leave.
Percy flinches. Nico can read the stupid news flash just made it through written across his face. "I really stepped in it up to my eyes, Nico. Dude. I'm sorry. I – I am a Seaweed Brain sometimes."
Nico's lips twitch at the corners. "You going to give me a hard time for dating a guy who's fourteen?"
"What? No. Why does that matter?"
"All right then," Nico says. That's good enough for him. Not holding grudges is a habit he could get used to. "We're square if you convince Jason to back up a bit about it. I'm still getting used to the whole, belonging to a camp thing. Being around people who aren't dead and all. Tell him to trust I'll make the right call."
"You got it." Percy holds out his hand to shake, then stops. "Nico … a handshake just doesn't say it right. Can I have a hug?"
Nico starts backing up, his lip twitching. Gods this is awkward.
He nods, and Percy gives him an enormous bear hug that doesn't feel the least bit as weird as it ought to.
XxxX
End Notes: "Time to fly boys and girls. Uncle Leo's still got a few tricks up his sleeves!" HoH, LX