Nico climbed the rope ladder into the crow's nest, ignoring the twinges of pain from his scarred back and hands. The watchman smiled as Nico sat down next to him with his legs hanging off the side, taking a swig from a flask of rum offered to him before handing it back. He had continued to drink after Jack introduced him to rum, not excessively, but enough to have a constant buzz going. He knew Will would kill him when he found out, but he didn't give a dam. It made him feel good, and that's all that really mattered.

Nico rested his chin on the railing, staring out at the ocean through his good eye. That was when he noticed a glint of gold on the horizon. His head shot up and he squinted, trying to make out what he was seeing.

"Can I use your telescope?" Cotton handed him the device without complaint (though he was mute, so he couldn't complain much anyways) and Nico peered through. When he focused the lens, the shape took form as a bronze ship. A wide grin broke out on his face and he grabbed a rope hanging nearby, swinging over the side of the crow's nest and sliding down, landing easily behind Will. "They're coming," he laughed freely. "I saw their ship. You're going to love it!"

Nico let himself fall backwards into a wall, sliding down it to sit. "I can't believe it," he murmured, tilting his head back and resting against the wall. "They should be here sometime today." Cotton's parrot swooped down from the crow's nest and snatched the telescope from Nico's hands.

Nico was eager for the Argo II's arrival. He couldn't wait to see his friends again, especially Will. He didn't know what happened on the quest he was on; he must have accidently shadow traveled onto the ship, and maybe hit his head, because he didn't really remember his first few days on the ship. He had taken to it well though. He loved the sea. The rock of the ocean was like a lullaby, and the salty wind blowing through his hair was a drug, invigorating him. He even considered staying on Captain Sparrow's crew permanently. It would be better than the constant worries of the life of a demigod, and maybe he could even convince his boyfriend to join him.

"Nico…" Will's voice broke into his revelry. "You really need to be more careful. You're still recovering." Nico rolled his eye. For whatever reason, Will was always so careful around him, like he was made of glass. Nico didn't understand it.

He stood quickly. "I'm going to try to make myself look presentable." He slipped down the ladder and made his way easily into the room that used to sleep Jack Sparrow. He had gotten much more comfortable with living with pirates in the time he had been on board. He knew his way around the ship, had adopted their style of dress (Will had found him some clothes that were only a little big on him), and he had even taken on a more relaxed form of speech, putting much less effort into enunciating words.

There was a dirty mirror on one wall of the room, and Nico stood in front of it, examining himself with a cautious eye. A loose, cotton shirt hung off of his frame, ruffled in the wind. His black trousers were tucked into leather boots, with his Stygian iron sword hanging off his hip. His eyepatch was ragged, as it was borrowed from Ragetti. Nico admittedly looked good in the clothing department; too skinny for them to fit right, but his ass did look amazing in those pants.

He leaned down to look at his face, running his fingers over the bumpy scars under his eyes and leaving tracks in the dirt, sighing. He had absolutely no idea where those scars had come from, nor did he know what had happened to his eye. Yet another unsolved mystery.

Nico was becoming increasingly frustrated. Nothing anyone said made sense to him. Will always gave him these pitying looks, and Elizabeth coddled him, hugging and shushing him when he had nightmares. That was another thing. He had nightmares almost every night. They were not like the controlled setting of his usual dreams, nor even flashbacks from Tartarus, they were just vague flashes of images, things that made no sense like tentacles and a man with a shell on his head and a blood covered whip. And then there was the bear. Nico didn't remember getting it, but he knew instinctually that it was from Will (the sun sewed onto it was also a little hint). He suspected that something bad had happened to him, but the memories were just out of reach.

He spent the next few hours in the crow's nest whenever he could be, watching the Argo II's approach. Every now and then Gibbs would begrudgingly climb up and ask him to do odd jobs that required someone small, like climbing through some ropes to tie something off. He finished all of them as quickly as possible so he could get back to watching.

Nico felt…weird to say the least. The closer the Argo II came, the more jittery he was. He was of course excited to see Will and the others, but there was something else too, something lurking on the edges of his consciousness to the point where he was trembling. He drank more rum to steal his nerves, but that just made it worse. It got to the point where Ragetti, who was on watch around the fourth hour, made him go down to the deck in case he fell. Will, of course, caught on at this point, and took Nico's canteen and replaced the rum with water. About an hour ago he had left to give Jack a serious talking to.

Now the crew was running around, shouting things Nico didn't understand. He assumed they were trying to make the Black Pearl not run into the Argo II. People ignored him mostly in all of the fuss, but Nico didn't mind. Everyone was usually fussing over him constantly, and he was glad for the chance to just be by himself for a bit.

As the Argo II approached, Nico tried to guess who all of the shapes on the deck were. Frank was easy to spot, and Nico had a sneaking suspicion that the one flying into the rigging was Jason, but the others were a bit harder to discern. He'd imagined he would have this magical moment where he would look up and somehow just know which one was Will, but he honestly had no clue. It somehow only made the knot in his stomach worse.

Nico wanted to help with lowering the ramps when the time came, but he was really freaking jumpy, and anyways, no one let him help with physically laborious tasks on account of his "condition", whatever the hell that meant. So he was left to pace like a nervous bride on her wedding day. Ugh. The comparison made him sick. He in all honesty was on the complete opposite side of the ship. He was just too nervous. He felt lightheaded. It didn't make any sense, he should be happy, but it was just too…overwhelming.

"Nico?" He turned at Elizabeth's voice.

"Oh. H-hey Elizabeth." Nico cursed the shakiness in his voice. Elizabeth stepped towards him and took his hands in hers. He resisted the urge to pull away.

"Shouldn't you be on the port deck? It is your ship after all. I would've thought you would want to be there to greet them."

Nico turned away from her and put his hands on the railing, looking off into the distance and imagining forever, an empty horizon, and just drifting off into infinity. After a couple of minutes of silence, Nico spoke.

"I just…It makes no sense, b-but I'm scared." Nico averted his eyes from Elizabeth's imploring ones. "It's ridiculous, I know. But I'm afraid of what Will will say when he sees me. M-my Will I mean. I really don't know why, but—" Nico choked out a sob. "Oh gods…"

Elizabeth rushed to him and pulled him close. "Oh little one, I'm so sorry." Nico grit his teeth, but didn't push her away. He was so, so ashamed; why was he so weak? He knew from experience that pushing people away would only make things worse though, so he allowed himself to be comforted by the older woman. She stroked his hair in the way that she always did, tucking his head under her chin as Nico struggled to breathe through his tears. Elizabeth began murmuring to him softly.

"Nico, I'm so proud of you darling. You've healed so much since you got here. You've come so far." Elizabeth pulled him back at arm's length. "Don't throw it all away now. From what I know about these people, especially your Will, is that they love you, and that they would never hurt you." She smiled down at Nico, and he immediately felt calmer. He was sure Elizabeth had some charm speak in her. "Now come on. Your crew is boarding."

Nico trailed behind Elizabeth, butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. As soon as he turned around he and Will locked eyes, and the world tunneled. Nico froze. He couldn't. He just couldn't. The next thing Nico knew he was in Will's arms.

"I love you so much Angel."

"I love you too. I love you too."

They kissed, and the world was right again. This was where Nico belonged, in Will's arms, and Will belonged in Nico's. Their lips were puzzle pieces, and the only match was each other's.

The two of them slid to the floor. Nico finally pulled back, and was shocked to see tears on his face. Nico frowned and kissed them away.

"What's wrong? We're together now," Nico murmured, nuzzling into his neck. Will out a shaky sob, and pulled Nico back to look him in the eyes.

"I am so sorry baby." Will's voice broke. "I should never have let you go alone. I should have—"

"Will…hey, I'm okay, see? I'm fine." Will looked at him in disbelief. "I mean, there's my eye, but I'm sure it can be fixed."

"You…you're okay?" Nico smiled.

"Yeah, Solace. I'm okay." Eventually they separated, mourning every second they spent not touching. However, Hazel immediately took Will's place. Nico grinned into his little sister's hair.

"I missed you Hazel." Nico said softly, but she was having none of it.

"Don't you ever," She sobbed, "EVER leave me again. Do you hear me?! EVER!"

"Yes ma'am." Nico muttered sarcastically. Hazel punched him in the stomach, and then kissed him all over his face. Nico laughed softly, kissed her cheek, and then stood up to face the rest of the crew.

Piper had tears in her eyes. Annabeth did too, but she was smiling through them. Leo was shaking his head and grinning. Percy and Jason looked concerned, and Frank didn't seem to know what to do with himself.

Hazel and Will were holding his hands. Nico felt overwhelmed. He suddenly felt tears running down his cheeks. Immediately Will (Turner), who had been watching everything like a hawk, started shooing everyone away, but Nico held up his hand.

"No Will, it's okay. I don't need to be babied." Nico turned his head away. "Not like you usually do," He muttered.

The demigods had apparently already been introduced to the crew, and Elizabeth decided that they should have a tour of the ship. They were led around the deck, and into Jack/Nico's cabin, then down into the hold, where Elizabeth showed them the cannons, the crew's cabins, and the inner workings of the ship. Leo was loudly unimpressed, making constant wisecracks at the lack of technological advancement, much to Nico's annoyance (he had come to love the Pearl, and think of her as his ship) , but Percy and Annabeth were both equally fascinated, Percy loving the ocean-ness of it and Annabeth obsessing over the "authentic historical design". Nico smirked. He didn't know what the deal was with this ship, but he was fairly certain that it wasn't a reinaction.

As for he and Will, Nico ran around showing him all of his favorite spots. Both of them were red faced from laughter as they exchanged stories of everything they had missed in each other's lives. Eventually they climbed their way into the crow's nest. Will would freak out every time Nico slipped, but Nico would just laugh at him and keep going. They climbed into the glorified wooden bucket, and collapsed into each other's arms, panting.

"I missed you," Nico said, leaning back against Will's chest and relishing in the safe feeling it gave him when his strong arms wrapped around him.

"I missed you too," Will murmured into the side of his neck. Nico leaned his head onto Will's shoulder and smiled as he kissed his neck gently. "I missed kissing you and holding you and talking to you. I missed seeing you smile." He craned his neck over and gave him a small peck on the lips. "I'm never letting you go anywhere without me again, okay?"

"Mmmm," Nico agreed, too caught up in the felling of contentment to really care what his boyfriend was saying. As long as he would keep doing this, Nico would agree to anything. But Will needed to know what had happened; that he didn't remember anything. He had done a good job of concealing the fact, but Will was sure to find out soon enough, and they had made an agreement not to hide things from each other after Nico had "forgotten" to tell him about the fact that he got the Hypnos cabin to make him a potion to keep him from sleeping so he wouldn't have nightmares. No, he wasn't going to keep this in the dark. It would only cause problems later when Will figured it out.

"You're doing a lot better than I thought you would be. I thought… After what happened-"

"Will," Nico interrupted, wiggling out of his arms and turning to face him. "I need to tell you something."

"You can tell me anything. I'm here for you babe." The readiness and almost eagerness Will listened to him with almost brought tears to his eyes. How did he deserve someone so amazing?

"I-um… I don't really know how to tell you this…"

"Take your time." He was sweet, but he was taking the supportive boyfriend thing a little too seriously.

"I guess I'll just go for it so um…" He took a deep breath. "I don't remember anything that happened to me in the last two weeks."

Will's eyebrows furrowed in the adorable way they did when he was confused. "What?" It looked like he was going to say more but Nico's eyes were trained on the sea, where a ragged ship was quickly approaching them. He stood quickly and leaned over the side of the crow's nest.

"Will!" he shouted.

Will Turner looked up at him from below, where he had been in an extremely confusing conversation about blacksmithing with Leo. "What is it?" he called back.

"There's another ship coming right for us!"

Will ran to the side of the ship and peered out to sea. Even from high up, Nico could see him go white as a sheet. "Ready the cannons! It's the Dutchman!"