A.N. okey dokey! I was quite surprised on the reaction I got for playing pokemon! Yay! I ain't the only one! Long live haunter! Mua ha ha ha ha…eh hem…so this chapter will be intensely funny (I think) so enjoy! No Adanca this time, but next time! Maybe…you'll see. Tell me if you want Adanca next time, or Niccaria.

And if y'all wanna see pictures of this infamous Bill I speak so much about on the show True Blood, take a look at my profile! At the bottom! The first one don't really work, so I'll fix the link, but the other two do! So look at them if you want!

Disclaimer: Man knows the price of everything, yet the value of nothing. Women know everything! Like how I don't own Percy Jackson!

Faster and Faster the Flowers Grow

Viscaria woke out of a dead sleep. She was curled up against Nico (the nightmares were bad tonight) and suddenly he jolted awake.

"Hmmmm…?" and she scooted closer, hoping her body heat and nearness would make him lay back down.

"I think someone is at the door. Maybe Atrum…" and she was out again. Don't ask how she can sleep so heavily in a place like this.

Mumbles and phrases poked at her consciousness, but she didn't pay attention to most of them.

"…why me?"

"…Marive wants…so I had to…"

"Better me than…"

"…neither of you…"

"…do I go?"

Silence.

"Now?" she heard Nico ask. She decided to listen more intently.

"I'm sorry Nico. If I didn't let her do this, all of them would turn on me."

What are they talking about? Where does Nico have to go? What does this have to do with Marive?

She shuddered at the name.

"What do they do to you in there?" she heard Nico ask. She bolted up in her bed. It was too dark to see anything or anyone. Only voices outside or next to the door. If they were talking about what she thought…

"I do not know exactly. I didn't really want the room here in the first place, but you know how monsters are." Atrum tried to joke. He even laughed a little, but Nico stayed silent. "Er…right."

"How long am I in there for?" he whispered.

"I don't know." Atrum whispered back.

Footsteps echoed down the hall. Then the darkness consumed every part of her soul.

She knew exactly where Nico was going. She had seen many go in the room, but most don't come out. But the ones who do come out, they are never the same.

Twitchy. Blinky. Jumpy. Crazy.

The four dwarves of the torture room.

Viscaria was cleaning with Alis, waiting for Nico to return.

"You think he'll make it out?" she asked. You can't help yourself. Sometimes thoughts just enter your head, and when you are most nervous is when they come streaming out.

"I think he'll make it out." He sounded very sure of himself.

"You think he'll make it out…ok?" she gulped. Tears burned her eyes. It was very hard for her to just wait it out for him to come back from the torture room. What were they doing to him? Was it as bad as her first job? Or maybe even worse?

The tears slid down. She didn't know what she would do if Nico were gone from her.

Alis stopped scrubbing. He went and hugged her. "There is no need to cry, my friend. Your love will make it out of there, and he will be ok. Ok?"

She nodded. "Ok." They went back to work. "You know, he saved my life." She said.

"He told me you fell off your Pegasus and he caught you." Her body water bill was gonna be high today because she couldn't quit the water works.

"That too. What else did he tell you?"

"That he fought some over sized Griffen's too."

She nodded. "Anything else?"

He thought for a moment, no longer scrubbing while he thought. "No, that was it. Why, did he do more?"

She smiled softly and nodded. Hey, she was already crying, why not take it to the extreme? "Yeah." She stopped cleaning. "He did more."

"What?" Alis whispered.

"He brought me back to life."

Alis was speechless. Viscaria even had it in her to chuckle at his expression before she went back to her silent tears.

"R-really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if he can bring someone back to life from the grave, then I'm sure he can get out of the torture room dancin'"

Viscaria smiled at him and kissed his cheek. "Thanks."

Alis blushed and went back to really cleaning. "Yup." Hey, that's what friends are for.

Atrum walked in the room, Nico trailing behind.

"Nico!" Viscaria cried, and she ran to him. Atrum stopped her.

"Um, Viscaria? Now probably isn't the time."

Now she really looked at Nico. First, she cataloged his skin to make sure nothing was out of place or bleeding. Everything fine there. Then she studied the expression. Yeah, it was vacant, emotionless, blank. She expected that. But what got her were his eyes.

His terrible, terribly frightened, crazy eyes.

Her breath hitched. "Nico?" she said softly, frightened.

He turned his eyes to her. She flinched. His eyes were even more scary looking at her. And most things that are frightening to the eye are the same things that you can't stop looking at.

"Normally they do whippings and stuff. Physical damage. But this time Marive was in charge. I…I don't quite know what they did to him. I think they…" he trailed off. Nico had started to walk over to the sink type things, and he started to clean.

Viscaria walked over to him. "Nico? Are you…ok?" she glanced at Alis when she asked this. He looked just as scared as her.

But no one was as scared as Viscaria. He turned his head to her slowly, and his eyes made her eyes sting once again. "Oh Nico, what did they do to you?" She brushed the bangs out of his face. He went back to cleaning. "What the fuck did they do?" anger entered her voice and the tears cascaded down her face.

Keep in mind that Viscaria doesn't believe in swearing. At all. And did she just say 'fuck'? Yes. That means she's angrier than ever.

"I'll just leave then." Atrum said, but he didn't leave, not yet. "I'm…sorry, Viscaria." And he did leave after that.

"Nico? Please talk to me." She tried again. Who cares about the damn armor? Not her! She wants to know what those bitches did to her Nico, dammit!

He looked at the water. That was when she gave up hope. Nico was gone. She slowly fell to the floor, and began to ball her eyes out.

"Acacia!" Nico yelled. She lifted her head off her knees in utter confusion.

"Excuse me?" and acacia was a flower…

"Platonic love, concealed love. I love you, by the way, Viscaria."

"W-what are you talking about?" that was the first time she heard Nico say he loved her out loud. She would've been soaring if she knew that it was actually Nico talking.

"Adonis. Recollection of life's pleasures." He belted out really fast.

"Aloe. Wisdom and integrity." No pause, no breathe. She looked at him as if he were more than just crazy.

"Why are you saying flower meanings?" Viscaria asked. Alis just looked…baffled, yet again. What else was Nico capable of?

"Allspice. Compassion. I love you, Viscaria." He was talking so fast, he words started to mesh together, but she still caught them. His eyes started to blink quickly, and his hand would clench and unclench faster than his words.

She blushed. "Um…th-"

"Alyssum. Worth beyond beauty. That would have been a great name for you, Viscaria. You are worth beyond beauty."

She blushed deeper. "Um…yes, well-"

"Amarath. Fidelity."

"Nico. Please stop-" she tried again. He was really scaring her.

"Abor Vitae. True friendship. I love friends. Friends are great." Faster and faster his words spewed out of his mouth, faster and faster his eyes rolled around his head. Viscaria started to cry again.

"Arbutus. Thee only do I love. I only love you, Viscaria." His face started to turn blue. He was talking too fast for the oxygen to make it to his brain.

"Nico, STOP!" faster and faster the tears fell down her face. Nico started to convulse, his whole body rippling and shaking.

"Aster. Daintiness. Symbol of love. I love you so much, Viscaria. I should give you a million flowers. A million asters."

"S-s-s-stop! Nico." She screamed and begged. Her cries were getting worse, her words indecipherable. Yet Nico's rang clear in her head.

"Azalea. Fragile and ephemeral passion. I love you Vis…" and he collapsed on the floor, along with her spring of tears.

REVIEW!!

p.s. what happened to Nico? Oh no!

REVIEW!! To find out!

Aces and Eights