THANK YOU GUYYYYS.
AND DON'T WORRY, I'VE PLANS FOR MARIA. ;)
CREDITS TO WHOMEVER MADE THAT SONG. IT'S SO PRETTY.
OH, AND WATCH SWEENEY TODD. IT'S SO PRETTY TOO.
:P
Golden memories.
He opened his eyes, the lingering taste of sunshine and butterfly dust on his lips.
Blond eyes and blue hair and soft tanned skin.
Will.
But No, not Will. Jason.
He frowned in confusion as Jason's sharp, worried eyes came into focus. His lips were pressed into a thin line. He'd let his hair grow out a bit from its original strict Roman haircut and his glasses hung way too low on his nose. Like a baby chick precariously peeking over a ledge.
Nico pushed them back, causing Jason to flinch back as well.
A tense smile came to his lips. "You're alright."
"Alright" was a bit of a stretch. His whole body was aching horribly and his mouth was dry and parched. There was stinging pain every time he tried to move. He felt like he was looking at everything from underwater. The world separated by a thin watery veil.
He focused on what seemed more important. "…What happened?"
Before Jason could answer, a startled gasp was followed by hurried footsteps and then the cold shock of water on his chest.
He jerked, and the pain almost made him black out, but he focused on Hazel's horrified face.
"Oh my gods, Nico, I am so sorry. I was bringing you water because Hades said you were going to wake up soon. I got your dress wet. I'll go get you some more. How do you feel?"
He'd never seen his sister so…
messed up emotionally. Her eyes were red. "Uh…I-I'm ok."
Nico heard a yawn and suddenly Percy was at his side, smiling stupidly and wiping a line of drool off his face. "Oh. You're awake. Finally."
Leo and Calypso were sitting a little while away, glancing over at him worriedly.
Why was everyone here?
Nico tried to sit up and was rewarded with Greek fire racing through his veins.
If fish could make noise while they gasped for air and flopped around on land, Nico would have sounded just like one.
A blond kid Nico didn't recognize pushed his way through his friends. "Alright, step back, give him some space. I'm going to hook him up to some ambrosia."
Right, he was in the infirmary.
Wearing a paper gown and lying in a cot and hooked up to more machines than he recognized.
What had happened? The last thing he remembered was cake and kisses and then…pain.
Pain unlike anything he had ever felt before.
"But wait," Percy protested. "The other guy already gave him some!"
Jason nodded absently. "When did you guys figure out to inject ambrosia directly into the bloodstream? Isn't that dangerous?"
Annabeth was inspecting the equipment that Nico was tied up to.
Piper was arguing loudly with another nurse.
"Is he going to be okay?" Hazel inquired.
"Do you know why his- do you know the cause of…this?" Frank demanded, pushing into the guys face.
The kid finally had enough. "Quit it! I don't know anything!" He glared at Percy. "Now he needs more!" Then to Jason. "Shut up. These guys know what they're doing." He practically growled. "Tell the chicks to stop harassing the nurses and to stop touching the stuff! And you, get out of my face man."
Frank stepped back.
The blonde looked at Hazel and softened. "I don't know anything. I'm just a Hermes kid. I noticed he was out of ambrosia and he obviously needs more. You idiots can't tell that he's in pain."
He hooked the liquid ambrosia to the IV stand, checking to make sure that the needle was still in Nico's arm.
Nico's friends had all stepped back, chagrined.
The son of Hades found himself liking the boy, who looked about twelve.
"You're Will's boyfriend, right?" Nico could feel the ambrosia entering his system. It did nothing to lessen the pain in his chest, but it eased the aching in the rest of his body somehow.
Will's boyfriend.
"Yeah."
He looked at him with well-disguised awe. Like he admired him, but he pitied him too.
"I just got here but Lou Ellen says that Will was all over you seconds ago." He winced at his own words. "Err…I mean, he did your bandages and stuff and he fixed you up to these things all by himself."
Nico slowly sat up, closing his eyes as the pain deepened.
How could he make the pain go away?
"You know, you gave him quite a scare. I've seen Will cry, he cries a lot when we're watching those stupid movies, but he was, like, sobbing."
Lou Ellen took one look at his face and grabbed on to the boy's arm and yanked. "Sam! Why would you say that? Go find Will!"
Nico waited until they closed the yellow paper curtain, and then he swiveled around and pinned his first victim with a stare.
Percy gulped.
"What the hell happened? What does he mean Will was crying? Where is he? What is wrong with me? Why am I here?"
The tall brunette glanced at Jason, then at Annabeth, seemingly for support. They both nodded at him. "Ehm…well, the whole Camp is outside."
Now that he mentioned it, Nico could hear anxious, angry muttering of demigods outside the window. A glance outside revealed just the barest rays of sunlight rising over the horizon. As soon as the others noticed him, they pointed at him excitedly and began shoving each other animatedly.
Nico felt his stomach twist.
Were they making fun of him?
His cheeks were hot as he yanked the curtains over the glass and turned, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and for once, noticed the bandage wrapped around his ankle.
He froze.
"…W-What?"
His knees were raw and red, as if he'd kneeled in a puddle of disinfectant. His paper gown hitched up and he saw the unmistakable white cloth of bandages around his upper thigh, peeking under the edge of his boxer-shorts. There was also a small square bandage on the leg opposite, on his inner thigh. He could feel, through the gown, the small patches of first-aid cloth on certain places in his torso. There was also strange red spots clumped together, all over his body.
He swallowed hard.
He recognized the injury at his ankle, from the kidnapping.
And the small patches were burns.
There was a purple wooden splint on his finger, wrapped in cloth. From the incident with the monster.
All his old injuries, the ones that had appeared after each new nightmare but eventually disappeared, were back.
But there were some that he didn't remember.
His raw, bloody, knees coated in some kind of balm.
His upper thighs wrapped in a bandage.
His forearms were bandaged heavily, leaving only the skin on the crook of his elbow exposed. And just above that, were more bandages, thicker this time.
And those strange red dots.
They didn't hurt, not really.
There was a blue smiley face drawn on the bandages around his right wrist. He focused on that as heard Hazel sob behind him.
Will must have drawn it.
It was wobbly.
Nico's chest clenched with even more pain as he imagined the beautiful son of Apollo crying while he pieced Nico's broken body back together, as if he was a doll someone had thrown under the wheels of a car.
Bandages like tape and balms and medicine like glue.
He looked up at the mirror across for him, startling as he saw the red stains on his face too. He looked like he had some type of disease.
Or a demon. He looked like a demon.
Jason spoke. "Percy told us…about how you woke up from a nightmare, but you came back wounded."
Nico looked up and Percy bit his lip, but Nico wasn't mad.
He shouldn't have asked the dark-haired hero to keep a secret from his friends, his girlfriend. But he didn't want to worry them. It must have been a bother enough to wake up to his screaming, then put up with the side effects of the drug. Nico made a mental note not to ever go on road trips again.
"How did you…" Jason adjusted his glasses. "Did you burn yourself in these dreams?"
He was referring to Nico's arms.
"No. Well, I don't know…do I have some kind of disease?" He looked uneasily up at his friends. Was he contagious or something? "Maybe you shouldn't be here."
Percy cleared his throat before anybody could say anything else. Annabeth's hand was resting loosely in Percy's own. "No, those little spot things…t-that was me. When I was controlling your…err, blood, Will said I made your blood ships-
"Blood vessels?"
"Yeah, those things. I kinda made them…" He made a weird motion with his hand, releasing his girlfriend. He mimicked tiny explosions with his fingers.
Nico frowned.
"But uh, don't worry…Will said you'll be okay. No permanent damage or anything."
"How long have I been here?"
"You've been passed out for about two hours." Jason said, not looking away from him. His gaze didn't waver and Nico found that reassuring as his chest flared with pain yet again. "And then Hazel and Frank arrived. Frank turned into a giant pig-
"It was a war-hog!" The son of Mars cried, affronted.
"More like wart-hog." Leo snickered.
"Hey!
Hazel turned to look at Nico, her face soft and vulnerable. Her hair was all askew and her eyes were still rimmed with red.
"We sort of rode slash flew over here as soon as we heard. I'm just glad you're aliv-okay. If it wasn't for Will…alerting everyone how he did…and then telling the boys what to do…I-I don't know what I would have done. I…I-
"Hazel... it's okay." Nico interrupted. "I'm okay." He looked down at his bandages hands. "How...Why are all of them outside?"
She smiled shakily. "They're worried about you. Like I said, Will kind of...alerted everyone."
He was about to ask for said Will when the sudden, nauseating, taste of blood filled his mouth. All his friends lurched forward at once but Piper got there first. She held out an empty wastebasket as he retched into it, vomiting black liquid. He grabbed onto Piper's arm, desperately.
He wanted to scream.
But he couldn't because his mouth was full of blood, and his eyes watered because he couldn't breathe and it hurt it hurt it hurt.
Finally, the torrent stopped and Nico breathed in thick copper-scented breaths. He had gotten a nosebleed.
And then Hazel was there, wiping his nose and his mouth and Nico cried, but he couldn't, because it hurt too much and he shouldn't and his sister was crying, and his sister was crying and Nico's chest hurt.
He breathed through his mouth while he wiped his nose, inhaling the coppery scent of blood.
His hands were shaking.
"Here, let me-
"No."
His sister drew back.
The pain in his chest was getting worse.
Nico pushed down the mortification.
Hazel was just trying to help him, but Nico couldn't stand it. Piper holding the medical wastebasket for him to retch in, while letting him hold on to her arm for support. And Hazel wiping his bloody nose while he burned with embarrassment. Or Jason bending over him and dabbing at the sweat on his forehead. It made him squirm, ashamed and uncomfortable to be needing help while he was in such a vulnerable and disgusting state. Especially since they were helping him with such menial tasks.
He looked at Hazel's wincing face, fighting past the pain that threatened to send him into unconsciousness. He was determined to ignore it, because he knew that of he focused on it, the pain would overwhelm him. Maybe even kill him. How did he know that?
He didn't. He felt it.
Some dark primal instinct in his sub-consciousness was warning him away from this pain.
Frank interrupted the tense silence, pulling Hazel towards him. "What just happened?"
His voice was tremulous.
Nico had no answer.
To his surprise Jason, spoke up. "That... was my fault." He sounded anguished. "When we were resuscitating you, I…"
He trailed off and Nico wanted to tell him it was alright. They had saved his life, for goodness sake. But Jason was always too hard on himself, and more so whenever his friends were implicated.
Piper squeezed his hand, and her voice was devoid of charmspeak. Instead, it was filled with compassion and sympathy. She had handed the wastebasket to the one in charge of disposing of such materials. "Well, the boys had been trying for quite a while and we began to think-
"That they were only keeping your corpse from rotting." Leo supplied helpfully.
Piper shot him a dirty look and Calypso smacked him.
"Ow! Mami, I was only-
"Shush!"
"We were beginning to think," Piper's voice softened. "That your soul had left your body for good, when Will…"
Nico felt an inkling of dread.
"Well, he panicked a bit."
"Panicked?"
Hazel spoke up softly, but somehow, with such an impossible heaviness. "You died, Nico."
He almost didn't heart the next words that transpired.
He could taste orange and summer and smell strawberry fields and blood and all he could feel was pain and the hollow of unshed tears like an oncoming rain.
And he could hear Will's song, playing over and over in his happy, out of tune voice.
"You are my sunshine,
my only sunshine.
You make me happy,
When skies are grey.
You'll never know dear,
How much I love you..."
And then he would close his mouth and hum the rest. When Nico finally asked him what the rest of the song was, he'd only shaken his head and kept humming.
It's a story, he used to say. It doesn't need to have an ending.
Jason was looking at him.
But Nico knew it was a silly little mortal lullaby.
He was talking.
It DID have an ending.
Hazel was stroking over his arm.
Everything had an ending.
"So, Jason kind of messed up your windpipe," Leo was talking. "...but it should heal soon, as long as you don't start belting out a song too often, or start sticking things down your throat or anything like that, I mea-
...Nico?"
Nico wiped a stray tear off his cheek. "Where's Will?"
His voice came out weak and pathetic sounding, but he didn't care.
His friends had been too focused on Nico to even notice how strange it was that Will wasn't here, fussing over him, or comforting him, or simply snapping at people to be quiet or get away, but Nico had.
Nico more than noticed.
He felt it.
"I'll...go get him..." Percy and Jason both mumbled, dispersing among the nurses and patients.
Nico had died.
There weren't many people here, only demigods with minor injuries and other demigods working the night shift.
And then of course there was half of the Apollo cabin pretending like they weren't looking anxiously over at Nico.
Nico rubbed at the numerous spots in his arms. They were starting to fade away. He didn't look like he had the chicken pox or anything like that, it was more like being peppered with different continent shapes all over his body.
South America was on his elbow.
The pain was getting worse.
He glanced up at the drip, but it was almost empty. It was pumping him so full of ambrosia he was feeling a bit light-headed.
But it still wasn't enough to disguise the ever-growing pain in his chest.
"What do you mean Will panicked?" Nico croaked.
Hazel glanced at Leo, who seemed to be doing much of the speaking.
Even after all this time, Nico was a bit surprised to see all of his friends here.
For him.
Even Calypso was here, sitting in a blue plastic chair and losing sleep because of him.
"It was pretty cool." Leo admitted. Though of what, Nico had no idea because apparently the Latino didn't know how to get to the point. "Though we all know the children of Apollo are kinda lame-
"Hey!"
"We'll see about that the next time a freaking crowbar falls on you!"
"Yeah, or your the next time your girlfriend stabs you with a bolt-cutter!"
Calypso winced. "I genuinely thought you would catch it, Leo."
"I know, baby." The son of Hephaestus grinned, but he rubbed at his thigh like it was an old battle wound giving him a hard time in bad weather. "As I was saying, the Apollo kids aren't known for having great power-
"Eat shit!"
He winced. "Whatimeantosay is that in the middle of the night, Will Solace made the night, turn into day."
Nico stared at him. Wishing he could throw his own bolt-cutters. "Explain."
He spread his hands. "Out of nowhere, this bright light or something shot out of your cabin, and it spread all around, like...a nuclear explosion. It illuminated the whole sky."
He grinned, but it was uneasy. "Kinda like when we pulverized Gaea."
Piper nodded. "But this was bigger, more...pure. And it lasted longer."
Annabeth looked at him with those intense grey eyes. "The mortals say it had something to do with the lunar eclipse and the ozone layer, and pollution...they haven't managed to pinpoint where the light originated from."
"Thanks to the Mist." Hazel mumbled.
Nico was shocked, to say the least.
Will had... had what? He didn't even know what to call it.
Is that why he wasn't here? Maybe he was hurt. Had he even made it to the infirmary? Maybe when Jason had flown him over here they hadn't bothered to check whether he was alright and he-
No.
The boy Sam had said that Will had been here, fussing over him and...crying.
His brain was struggling to catch up. More than happy to focus on something other than that yawning razor-sharp pain in his chest.
What had it been that Hazel had said? When...she spilled the water...?
"But don't worry. Your boyfriend didn't go supernova. No one saw exactly how it happened, since only yall two were in there," Leo continued, "But he looked okay last time we saw him, just a little bit shaken up."
Nico felt a sudden burst of gratitude towards the Latino, pretending everything was okay and that he wasn't scared or affected in anyway.
It made him believe that things could go back to normal...
something that he found increasingly hard to believe as he looked down at his mangled body.
He was trying hard to keep it together.
If he let himself just think-
NICO HAD DIED. HOW WAS THAT POSSIBLE? HAZEL HAD DIED. HAZEL WAS OKAY. LEO HAD DIED. LEO WAS MORE THAN OKAY. NICO HAD DIED. NICO WAS NOT OKAY. HE WAS IN PAIN. HE WAS IN SO MUCH PAIN. IT WAS AS IF AN EVIL DEMONIC TODDLER WITH INHUMAN STRENGTH HAD BEEN GIVEN A SPOON AND HAD BEEN PLACED DOWN IN THE HOLLOW OF NICO'S CHEST TO DIG AROUND AND TAKE WHAT HE WANTED. A GRUESOME SON OF HADES ICE CREAM SUNDAY. ONE SCOOP: HIS LUNGS. NOW BLOODY RAGGED PIECES OF VEINY DEFLATED FILM INHALING AND EXHALING. TWO SCOOPS: HIS GUTS ALL STREWN AROUND AND CUT OPEN LIKE STRINGS OF GREEN BEANS. TIED AND KNOTTED TOGETHER AND SPLIT OPEN. THREE SCOOPS: HIS HEART. SOMEONE HAD TAKEN IT OUT! THE DEMON HAD EATEN IT. DUG ITS CLAWS INTO THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND YANKED OUT THE SUN, SKIN AND ALL. MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF SHINING ROCKS AND DEAD PLANETS BLEEDING THROUGH THE HOLE. GALAXIES AND DEAD MATTER BLEEDING THROUGH, AND BLEEDING THROUGH, AND IT COULD NEVER STOP BECAUSE THE VERY MEANING OF INFINITY WAS THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING. HIS HEART. WHERE HAD IT GONE AND WHY DID-
Will.
Will annoyed at him for thinking no one wanted him.
"Wait, Hazel...you said Dad was here?"
His sister frowned at him, then nodded suddenly. "Oh yeah, some of the gods came down to see what was going on. Artemis had been especially angry, until she learned what had happened. Hades had somehow made them all go away, and the he left too."
She was tugging at a strand of her hair.
Nico had never seen her do that.
"But, h-he said he was going to get something. For you."
For him?
He didn't need any money. Or a zombie chauffer. What could the Lord of the Underworld possibly-
"You fucking idiot. Just give me the bag."
The man squinted suspiciously at Nico.
"How does a kid like you get this kind of money -
"None of your business."
"Perhaps I should alert the authorities-
"You can shove your-
"O-Okay!" Will was suddenly there, invading his space with an arm around his shoulders. He grinned brightly at the heavy-set man in front of them, holding Nico's bag of supplies. "He comes from a wealthy family . Very wealthy."
That was true enough. His dad WAS the god of wealth, after all.
Funny how death and wealth go hand in hand.
"You wouldn't want reporters and the sort scurrying around your shop, now... would you? All of them looking for the guy who refused to accept money from the son of the famous multibillionaire called-
"Okay!" The man suddenly looked nervous.
Nico glared at him.
So, Nico's threats and murderous looks didn't scare him, but bad publicity did? Stupid mortals. Thinking they're safe because they have money and because they think their stupid government will protect them. I could snap his neck before those idiots in wailing colored sirens even turned the corner. We'll see how well his little shop serves him in the Underworld-
"Nico!" Will was standing in front of him, holding Nico's bag. "Baby, you're talking out loud!"
His boyfriend hooked his arm through Nico's and led him away.
The man shook his head, incredulous. "Crazy spoiled rich kid."
Nico jumped at him.
Will held him back and dragged him back outside the shop, into the crowds of mall-shoppers.
"Gods, Nico. Have a little tolerance."
Nico shrugged on the little black backpack and nodded reluctantly. "I know. I know. They're just so annoying. Always looking for excitement in their boring little lives."
"Boring?"
They looked at each other. Demigods had always, to some extent, envied mortal lives.
Nico nodded slowly and interlaced their fingers. "Boring. Yes. We'll make our own life, not a mortals, not a demigods'."
He grinned. "Solangelo's?"
"...Yes."
Will whooped. "Ship name approved!"
Nico rolled his eyes and plopped down on a bench. "You fools don't realize the hold Leo Valdez has in your lives." He opened the backpack. "Okay. So, we've got, rope. Sleeping tent . Sleeping bags. Blankets. Two lighters. First aid kit. Ambrosia-
"Where-?"
"You don't want to know. Water filter. Flashlights and bug spray."
He zipped it back up. "Anything else?"
Will worried at his lip. "We should get some clothes...and a little bit of food."
"Alright."
They stood together.
Will looked at him for a second.
Nico raised an eyebrow. "What?"
He shook his head, smiling. "Nothing. You just seem a bit different. Taking charge and everything. It's nice."
The son of Hades rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep the smile off his face. "Whatever. Let's go buy some clothes."
Fifteen minutes later...
"WILL FUCKING SOLACE!I AM NEVER GOING SHOPPING WITH YOU AGAIN!"
"I'm just saying-!"
"No!"
"But it was just-
"No!"
"Okay, okay. Jeez." Will's lips were twitching. "You're so cute when you're mad."
"I WILL punch you."
Nico stared at him incredulously as his annoying boyfriend held up yet another pair of jeans to his waist. "These are nice."
"They're ugly."
"They're what you always wear!"
"Then why don't YOU wear them?"
Will folded them up and put them back in their section. "Cause I don't like wearing jeans."
Nico rolled his eyes, searching for Will's size before throwing him a pair. "You can't always wear shorts."
"You don't like my legs, di Angelo?"
His face reddened. "It's not about that! It might be cold wherever we go, and...and bug bites and thorns a-and poisonous demon blood...jeans are one of the best pieces of armor a demigod can have."
Will continued to look at him. Unimpressed.
Nico turned a darker shade of red. Really?!
"Your...Your legs are fine!"
The son of Apollo clicked his tongue and stomped into a changing cubicle. "'Fine.'" He scoffed. "You're lucky you're dating me, and not a girl."
Nico grumbled. "You ARE a girl."
"What?"
Nico blinked. "What?"
The door smacked behind him, but he didn't lock it.
There was no one around in this section of the building and Will protested he didn't like using the changing cubicles but Nico pointed out that the staff wouldn't appreciate him changing mid-store even if there were no customers in.
He could hear him humming as he changed. An ancient Greek hymn, he claimed. Nico knew better.
"Okay. How do I look?" Will exited, showing off his outfit.
Nico glanced at him, then did a double take.
He looked...older.
Hot.
Kind of like his father, but not really.
He wasn't wearing his flip-flops, nor his baggy shorts, or that huge camp T-shirt anymore.
Instead, he had on practical, yet cute little yellow work boots with orange laces, blue jeans that fit snugly around his hips and thighs, and a black shirt that looked soft and flexible, that accentuated the muscles in his chest.
Nico was working on closing his mouth when Will topped the outoutfit by slipping on a red flannel long-sleeved shirt, and a floppy blue sunhat.
"Perfect."
He rolled up his sleeves and tipped his hat at Nico.
"Well?"
Nico stammered over his words. "You look, great!"
Will brightened.
He really was a sucker for praise.
"Minus the hat. And, I guess you can work the flannel."
"Yessss!" The son of Apollo popped some sunglasses on his face. "Like the boys Leo likes so much."
"They're lame."
"Quiet, unbeliever. It's your turn. Maybe we can look at those colorful, floral, Hawaiian shirts-
"Shut your mouth hole."
The pain in his chest eased a little when he remembered.
Those golden memories that had kept him warm while he was dead and left him tethered to his body, a string of woven gold connecting his soul back to Will, that-
Wait.
Wait.
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait...
WAIT!
Supplies? Weapons? Ambrosia? Clothes?
Nico NEVER gone shopping with Will Solace.
