The moon hung high out of his window, a cold glow that chilled Nico to his bones. He pulled the bag across his shoulder, and crushed the cursed note in his palm. Since he was the cause of all this, he would be the one to go bring Will back, and hopefully still have his chance at Will's heart.

Nico laughed to himself, his voice hoarse, and the cats outside purred patronisingly. He cringed. Even the bag hanging limply on his shoulder appeared heavier than it had been before.

His phone rang and he jumped to silence it. How could he forget about it? He turned the phone on, and the vibration ceased.

Reyna. Two missed calls.

Nico suddenly wondered if she knew about his plan. After all, why else could she be calling him now? At this dark, unearthly hour? But no, she couldn't. After the day of the eclipse, he hadn't seen her anywhere.

Nico's finger hovered over the 'call back' button. He didn't really want to answer her call. Not that he didn't like her. He just didn't quite want to talk to anyone now.

But yet this was exactly why when he needed someone to turn to, no one was there, wasn't it? Nico sighed and looked up to the ceiling.

Silence reigned for a few moments, and he loosened the tension in his finger to touch the screen.

Nico took a deep breath, his stomach full of butterflies. He had almost never called anyone, not even Will, and that in itself was saying something.

"Hello?" Reyna's voice could be heard echoing throughout the room despite not being on speaker mode.

"Hi Reyna." He muttered flatly.

"Oh my gods Nico!" Nico managed a small smile.

"Yeah. Nico here." Nico heard the phone on the other side being waved around. "Reyna?"

"Hiya Nico! Mi amigo!"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Leo?"

"Yep. It's Leo here, hotshot." He could hear Reyna laughing in the background, but yet, it still sounded so civilised. Reyna had this calm, royal aura around her that Nico didn't know how to describe.

"Since when did you speak Spanish?"

"Dude I'm of Spanish descent! Did you not know?" Nico's cheeks burned. He certainly had not known, or maybe he had forgotten. Either one of them.

"Also, I'm not a hotshot." Nico said, suddenly remembering he was on a call.

"Sure you aren't. Anyway, what happened? Where'd you go? I saw you being dragged into the principal's office the other day-"

"Let him speak Leo. You aren't giving him any space to breathe." Reyna interjected.

"Thanks Reyna. Anyway, I kinda left school."

"Huh?" Nico pulled the phone away from his ear a little, expecting some sort of rant coming on. But nothing came.

"Uh...Nico? You there man? Hey. Hey!"

Nico placed his phone back beside his ear. "Sorry. I was kinda waiting for a more rowdy reaction."

Reyna took the phone back. "Hm it's not really out of character for you to do this i guess. I mean, you were the more wilful type."

"You got that right."

"Yeah I did." Nico was quiet for a minute.

"Is that all you called me for?"

"Well...no." The cats started working up again, and they began to scratch his bedroom window. Which Nico found rather odd, considering that his bedroom was on the second floor.

"Reyna? Yeah, wait a sec." Nico dropped his phone on the bed and warily shuffled toward the window ledge..

He peered over the ledge. Two yellow glowing eyes stared back at him, and the cat purred again.

"How'd you get up here?"

The cat tilted its head, and tried to nuzzle it against Nico's cheek, but it could barely lift its head up..

"Suppose you can't really answer that." Nico leaned over to pick up the cat, and the cat wriggled a little.

"Stay still kitty. Do you want to fall?" The cat purred once more, but stopped in its tracks.

He cradled the little bundle in his arms and shut the window.

"I guess you came from the tree." Nico muttered, looking out to the long weak branches outside. The cat licked Nico's finger gratefully, and Nico didn't move it away.

"Nico? Hey." Nico didn't hear it for a moment. "Reyna? Did he hang up on us? That little piece of sh-"

"Hey hey Leo. Sorry about that. Some cat was falling out my window." Nico said briefly.

"Um...ok. Anyway, Reyna wanted to call you to ask about something."

Nico nodded. "Yeah. Told me that just now." Nico scratched the back of his neck. "So...what about it?"

"I...saw something." Reyna hesitated. Nico was slightly taken aback. Reyna never hesitated. She was confident, and was a more blunt person. She didn't pull any punches; if she had something to say about you, she would say it.

"Oh? What did you see?" Leo interjected.

"I-" Reyna sighed. "Or...Leo? Could you leave us for a while?"

"I...sure." Nico could almost see Leo's sad and forced smile. It made him wince. "Don't want to be the third wheel now do i?" Leo added, and Nico heard footsteps and the sound of a door closing.

"So...about what you saw?" Nico tried to get back on topic, but Leo's words played over and over like a haunted tune in his mind.

"You know that day at the park?"

"What park? What day?" Nico absently scratched the cat's ears, and she snuggled into his lap affectionately.

"It was a really hot day, and there were tons of flies around-" Nico frowned. He didn't like it when people, especially Reyna, purposely avoided his questions.

"Reyna please. Cut to the chase."

Reyna laughed nervously, and this was nothing like the regal Reyna he knew.

"Chase?" The awkward laugh came on once more. "What chase?"

"Reyna."

"Nico..?"

"Reyna! Goddamnit! You said you had something to tell me, and i want to know what that is!" Nico was so close to tearing out the hairs on his head. The cat purred, this time, alarmed.

"Fine! I s-"

"Hey! What's with the screaming? I'm trying to complete my fire-breathing dragon for the science project!" Leo yelled through the closed door.

Reyna exhaled. "Sorry. I was a little out of it today." She took a deep breath. "I saw Will kissing you."

Nico felt his entire face, stretching on to the back of his neck, grow increasingly hot.

"You did?" Nico asked in a small voice.

"Yeah…" Reyna trailed off. "And I'm not saying it's bad...or wrong...or against certain values or anything."

Nico began to sweat. It was so odd-the feeling of sweating. He was almost always in the cold rink or at home, chilling. And now, to feel his shirt stick to his back just made him want to go take a shower.

"I don't know man. It's just so foreign to me. I guess...i never thought you'd be gay." There she said it. The cat stopped purring, the crickets stopped chirping. Everything fell silent. The ball was in Nico's court, and how he would send it back could change everything.

"Well...Will is too." Nico squirmed. "And it's not like I was the one who kissed him. He kissed me! I was at the receiving end!"

"So you don't like him back?"

"I do!" Nico explained, exasperated. "I just don't know if he does too!" Nico rubbed his temples. "Why'd you tell me this Reyna?"

"I thought you'd want me to tell you that I knew, so then...you wouldn't have to hide it in front of me."

"I mean, I am glad that you told me. But like…" Nico balled his clothes in his hands. "You didn't have to." Nico didn't know how to say the next part nicely.

"We aren't even that close."

"Ouch." Reyna replied, a little hurt. "But I do hope I can get closer to you, Nico. I hope you know that I actually want to be your friend."

"Is this some kind of hoax?"

"Oh gods. The fact that I even have to say no tells a lot." Reyna said.

Nico, pressured, stroked the cat vigorously. "I don't think that's possible."

"You don't think what's possible? Me saying no?"

"No. I don't think we can get closer." Nico said, grimacing at his bluntness and tactlessness.

"Oh."

"It's...not your problem. Will he...he forced rebirth."

"What...do you mean?" Reyna was, so far, taking this in so calmly Nico wondered if Reyna had even heard him right.

"He is on the surface. Like...living and all."

"So...as a baby? Or like, as himself." Nico suddenly felt this huge embarrassment for reacting like he had.

"Himself." Nico sighed.

"So you plan to go get him?"

"Yeah."

Nico was so many things. A skater with skills beyond his years, he was intelligent, he was a popular kid when he was in school. He found the love of his afterlife at the mere age of seven, he was highly sought after for his looks (which he never quite understood why).

But maybe the void in his self couldn't be mended with such things. Maybe the longer he stayed, the greater the hole would tear.

Nico clenched the cat's fur in his hands. It nuzzled its nose against his chest, as if to tell him "it's fine, you can just leave". A huge lie, and an equally huge price to pay.

Nico gripped his bag. "Reyna...please don't hate me."

"But you can't do this! The price to pay...is it really worth it?" Yep, Reyna had heard him alright.

Nico was silent for a few seconds, and it took him a while to notice the tears that fell on his lap and the cat.

"Yes."

"Are you...crying?" Reyna probed.

"Don't ask." His voice thick. "I just...hope that you'll give me your well wishes."

Nico stood up, the sudden blood flow to his feet numbing them. "But Nico-"

"Reyna." Nico cut her off, walking down the stairs quietly. "You know this is what I want."

"It's not just about you anymore Nico! You know how i'll feel about this!" Reyna said, slightly hysterically.

"This isn't your fault." Nico said. "If i go through with it, it'd be my decision."

Nico softly opened the door and walked out of his house, hoping he wouldn't wake the sleeping Hades. He didn't want this to be yet another failed attempt.

"Nico-" Nico hung up, then pressed his fingers against his eyes. Gods, everything had seemed to be going well for him, but then one incident was followed by yet another. Nico feared he'd crumble.

He felt a furry sensation at his legs. The cat. He looked down, and it stared back up at him.

"You can't come with me." It meowed sadly, then pounced onto his shoulder, burying its head into his hair. Nico wondered how anyone could refuse that cute pair of eyes. His gaze softened.

"Fine. But we have got to be quiet alright?" Nico whispered, then unzipped his bag. He pushed everything inside to the left, and patted the empty space he had created.

The cat looked up innocently at him, and he nudged it into the bag. It sniffed the area, then sat down for a rest.

Nico wanted a rest too, so so badly. He hadn't slept well for the past few nights, and the perpetual dark circles under his eyes made him appear to have eyeshadow.

A bright light suddenly blinded his vision for a moment, and he flinched.

Remembering his mission, he ducked behind a bush to avoid being seen. Gods what an idiot he was; standing outside his home in the middle of the night with a cat in the bag (pun not quite intended). He took a deep breath, and began to crawl along the route he had mapped out earlier in the day.

The night darkened further as he wove around countless streets, and by the time he was even near the gates, the sky was beginning to brighten.

While it wasn't that good of a thing, the guards, after an entire night of staying up, were definitely not as alert. Nico himself was running on adrenaline.

The plan had changed drastically, to say the least. Nico would just charge and try to get past the guards. No cover story. Just be as reckless as possible. It wasn't the best plan, but Nico was not up to think up another more detailed plan.

He inhaled deeply, even the cat stopped its continuous purring, and settled down to sleep in silence. He wiped his clammy hands on his pant legs, and tilted his head to the left and right.

He was just about to sprint when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

His blood turned ice-cold.