Fruit and Flowers

"And what's this meant to be?" asked Nico, lifting the yellow object from the table.

"A straight banana," replied Will.

"Do I want to -" started Jason.

"No," said Nico. He peered at it. "Will, this isn't a banana. It's a cucumber that you've painted yellow."

Will looked sheepish. "Maybe…"

Jason looked from one, to the other, and then at the 'banana'. "I really don't want to know!"

Will and Nico both looked up at him at once. "What? Jason!"

"But why did you bother with the deception?" asked Nico. "When you can just do this?" He focused on his plate, and, a moment later, a perfectly straight banana appeared on it. He gave it to Will. "There."

"Cheers. Now what do I do with my other one?"

"Up to you, dear."

"Why do I sit with you two?" groaned Jason. "Why do I put myself through this?"

"Because all your other friends have much more interesting lives," said Nico. He smiled widely at Jason. "Next!"

Jason thought for a minute, shrugged, and went back to his cereal. "Could be right there."

"Anything weird happened on one of your trips?" asked Nico.

"Other than you two?" Jason ducked away from Nico's fist, and looked thoughtful. "There was a bit of a weird one. Ares told me to build him an altar on Mount Cithaeron."

"In Greece?" asked Will.

"In New York. It moved, like a lot of other things, and it's here because -"

"It's sacred to -" Nico jerked his head at the empty top table, "- Mr. D." He frowned. "Hang on. It's sacred to Mr. D."

Jason nodded. "Exactly. Hence: weird."

Will bit his lip. "Pretty blasphemous, actually." He looked across at Jason. "It can't have been easy."

"I didn't see anyone while I was there, but I didn't stay long. It didn't seem wise to linger."

"Didn't do Pentheus much good," agreed Nico.

"No. So, anyway, I thought I should mention it." Jason looked around. "I don't know what Mr. D.'s reaction will be. But I have to do what I'm ordered…"

Will patted Jason's hand sympathetically. "You'll be OK. Or I'll fix you afterwards until you are."

Jason paled. "Thanks, Will…" He picked up the painted cucumber. "You two are seriously weird, do you know that?"

Nico looked affronted. "I think you'll find that the person replacing a banana with a cucumber and hoping we won't notice is Will, not me." He glanced across at Will. "Freak."

"Hmm?" Will was staring at the 'banana' in Jason's hand. "What was that?"

"I said that you're the freak."

"Oh. Um. Yeah. Maybe." Will stood up, forehead creased. "Uh, I've got to go. See you at lunch, OK?"

Before Nico could reply, Will had dropped a kiss onto the top of his head, and had walked away. He shrugged at Jason. "He must be late for something."

Jason looked up from his bowl. "Huh? Where did Will go?"

Nico stepped out of the shadows and tapped Will on the shoulder. Will didn't even look round from winding bandages.

"Yes, Nico?"

"I've got it."

"Do you want me to check whether it's contagious?"

"Hopefully. If your brain can manage, Sunshine."

Will turned around. "What is it, then?"

Nico leaned forwards, his eyes bright with a kind of excitement: "Some of the gods are trying to take the powers of others!"

"I know," said Will.

Nico opened his mouth. "It's - wait - what?" He scowled. "You're just saying that."

Will shook his head and picked up the notepad that his on the desk. At the bottom of a page of notes sat the words: 'They're taking other gods' powers'. It was circled and underlined. Twice.

"Oh." Nico seemed to deflate a little.

Will ruffled Nico's hair. "It's OK. It's still faster than anyone else. And I only beat you to it by, like, fifteen minutes, tops."

"Hmph." Nico sat down heavily on Will's knee.

Will let out a small squeak of surprise. He winced. "You're not a walking skeleton anymore, Nico…"

Nico rolled his eyes. "And you used to complain that I was too bony! There is no pleasing some people." He gathered his thoughts again. "Anyway - you don't seem too bothered by this. Particularly seeing as, having worked it out, you didn't feel an urgent need to tell me."

Will shrugged. "I had a couple of things to do. Also, it's chucking it down outside, and, unlike you, I can't teleport from place to place. And that would ruin my marvellous hair."

Nico stared Will's hair, which was, from a now very prolonged lack of cutting, hanging down his face. Every now and then he pushed it back over his ears, but it rarely stayed out of the way long. (Nico had, some weeks ago, taken a pair of scissors to his own hair, and, despite the mess, he reckoned it was a better look than Will's.) He laughed, and then shifted his gaze to look out of the window, where the rain fell in almost unbroken rods. "Yeah. It's not got any better from when Jason and Mr. D. had their conversation."

"I heard the yelling in here."

"I think you would've heard the yelling in New Rome." He frowned. "But you really didn't think it was worth braving the weather to tell me, or anyone else, about the gods conspiring against one another?"

"Well, they've waited this long, and, to be honest, it doesn't seem to be working that well. We've seen very little evidence, say, of any of their children having different powers. Also, since they think that it's still a secret, I don't think that we want to spread this around. That might just bring them into the open. Or get us killed." Will thought. "Well, the latter would probably result in the former…"

Nico narrowed his eyes. "So you're not that worried?"

Will shook his head, his eyes wide. "I am worried. I'm just not sure what to do about it."

Nico looked searchingly into Will's face. He nodded, and then gave him a little reassuring smile. "Yet. We'll figure something out, Will."

Will raised an eyebrow. "I hope so."

Nico sighed, and cast his gaze around the room. He frowned. "Why have you still got that banana?"

"It's here to prove how avowedly masculine I am."

"Until it goes all black and mushy. Then what will it prove?"

"That all things decay. A reminder of our own mortality - a reminder, Death Boy, of you."

Nico smiled. "You're quick, Will. I'll give you that."

"And what else?"

"I got you that banana. What else can you want - and, also, doesn't that make it your turn?"

"Well -"

"Hey - help!"

Will jumped up and stuck his head out of the door. A Hephaestus kid was running towards him, clearly distressed. "What's up?"

"This." The boy produced his hands from behind his back. They were sprouting flowers.

Nico and Will exchanged an alarmed glance.

The boy noticed. His lip started to wobble. "Am I going to be OK?"

Will smiled at him. "You'll be fine! Just sit on this chair and I'll see what I can do for you. Nico - come over to my cabin later, will you?"

Nico nodded, and left. The boy sniggered. "So it's true what everyone -"

Will fixed the kid with the coldest stare he could muster (Nico had been giving him lessons). "Do you want to be green-fingered forever?"

The boy hung his head. "No…"

"I'm going to miss coming in here when all your siblings are back."

"You can still be in here when they're here, you know. They like you."

"Yeah, but," Nico pulled a little closer into Will's side, "there are so many of them. And there'd be no space."

"You're not taking up much room at the moment," said Will.

"You know what I mean. There'd always be someone there, or trying to get past, or doing something. And the noise!"

"Well, I'll just have to come and visit you, then, won't I?"

"Uh-huh."

"In the Gloom-Room."

"It is not! We redecorated, remember?"

"Mmm. From black to dark grey."

"All the difference in the world. And I thought you liked the coffin beds?"

"I do, I do! I think they're cool. A bit cosy -"

"You know that the sides fold out?"

"You never said that before!"

Nico shrugged. "You never seemed bothered."

"Hmm." Will rolled over to look at Nico. He kissed him. "I guess I'm not, really." Will's jaw tightened. "I am, however, bothered by that Hephaestus kid."

Nico nodded. "It shows that it's starting to work. Could you fix it?"

"Well, that was the thing - I was about to, and I'd started a little healing hymn, but before I'd finished, all the flowers just wilted away."

"So it's not stable?"

"Doesn't look like it. And it certainly wasn't controllable on his part."

"So we've got time before it sorts itself out."

"But that time could be pretty short." Will rubbed his eyes. "We just don't know."

"I reckon that we need to start checking shrines and holy places. See if expressions of belief in the gods really are changing."

"Yep. And that starts tomorrow. We can't afford any delay."

"In the meantime, though, I've thought of something we could do tonight with your banana."

"Mmm?"

"Banana sandwiches."

And things carry on...

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