A/N: Trogs. Because I love them.

'Nico?' I looked up and saw that none other than the great god Apollo was standing in front of Will and me. 'Can you come with me, for a second?'

'Eh, yes.' I handed the mental health flyer I had been working on to Will and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before I get up.

'Come, we should talk at the Big House.'

'Eh, okay. Hello, by the way.'

He chattered the whole way to the Big House, but did not say a word about what brought him to camp. When we stepped onto the porch, I leaned against one of the wooden beams. 'So, why did you need me?'

'Oh! I have been working on a project concerning the trogs. I think Olympus should make amendments with them, but for that, it might be important to know how you met them in the first place.' Ah. Hm. 'Yet, if you want to finish those flyers first...'

'No, I can do that later as well.' I actually wanted to talk about the trogs, more even if it could be helpful.

'Okay!' He skipped to one of the chairs. I followed.

'So, one day I was...'

'Hold up.' Dionysus walked onto the porch . He snapped his fingers and a green smoothie appeared next to me. 'Mind if I join in? I think it might be important to hear.'

I stared at the smoothie. 'What…'

'Thematic appropriateness.'

Ah, what the heck. I took a sip and it tasted fine. Fresh, fruity, sweet.

Dionysus made a third chair appear next to us. I looked at Apollo, who was looking at me. 'It is fine with me,' I answered. 'Yet, as I wanted to say, I was wandering around New York city one day. I think it was a few weeks before I started therapy. So I was not in the best mindset.' I slowly shook my head. Not at all.

Dionysus and Apollo both nodded.

'I wandered into an alley. There, I found a strange, frog-like creature. Later I learned that he was a troglodyte.' Wait a second. 'Don't ask why I was in a dark, New York side alley.'

Dionysus raised one of his eyebrows. 'Hm. Perhaps some other time.' That was to be expected.

'Ah, anyway, at first neither me nor the trog moved. We only stared at each other for a little while, until he came a little closer to take a look. I did not move.' I looked at the green smoothie. 'When he was really close, he narrowed his eyes and said in accentless English: "you smell like you come from the ground, but you don't look like it. And where is your hat?"' I shrugged and took a sip. 'I decided to play along. So I told him my hat got blown away and that I am familiar with the world under the ground, but also that I have never seen someone like him. He raised his chin and told me to come back in three days.'

I thought for a second. 'I had no reason to, but I decided to do what he asked. I even wore a hat. Lo and behold, he was in the alley again, with two more of his kind. One of them was wearing an absolutely ridiculous pile of hats.' I turned to Apollo. 'You know what I mean.'

Apollo chuckled. 'Yes. I do.'

I chuckled. 'Ridiculous hatpile eyed me up and down before saying I should tell him what I was, because otherwise they'd have to eat me. Actually, they had to eat me anyway, but if I could explain myself, maybe they didn't.' I shrugged. 'It was mildly confusing, but it seemed like I had no choice...'

'You could have shadow travelled away,' Dionysus commented.

'It seemed like I had no choice,' I continued, 'So I decided to be honest. Mostly. I told them I am the son of a chtonic god. That made their behaviour change a little, they became more respectful. They told me I should see their kingdom and that they would even cut open a fish for me. I was curious, and not in a very self-preserving mindset, so I went with them.' I pretended to not see Dionysus' stern look. 'From that point on, I went to them more often and I slowly began to learn more about the trogs. They told me about their customs and their ways and eventually, they began to accept and appreciate me. And the other way around, of course. They also learned about humans from me.'

Apollo opened his mouth to say something, but Dionysus was quicker: 'I knew there was something with those creatures, but I did not know you initially went with them out of self destruction.'

I looked at my green smoothie. 'It wasn't self-destruction, per se. Anyway, I shouldn't be lingering in the past. It is over now.'

'Hm. Are you sure that sense of self-destruction is entirely over, Nico?'

I shrugged. 'That is not why I go to the Trog now,' I tried to defend myself. 'I know they are friends. They won't hurt me.'

'They respect him and he respects them. They were friends to us,' Apollo muttered.

Dionysus looked at the table. 'I think both of you speak the truth. Yet, Nico...' He slowly shook his head.

'...I get it. But, I think it is still important that Olympus allies with the Trogs. We…' I nudged my head at Apollo, '... found out they can be a huge help when something is threatening the universe.'

Dionysus proceeded to stare straight into my soul, but he stayed silent.

I looked at the table. 'I really understand what you mean, Dionysus. I promise I will be more careful next time.'

He slowly nodded. 'I believe you, Nico. I trust that you won't do it again. All I ask is that you don't break that trust. Not with me and not with yourself.'

I nodded. Apollo swallowed. 'Ehm… I did not know that, Nico…'

'Well, I never told you. And now the trogs are good friends to us. Making amendments with them is still a good idea.'

Apollo peaked at Dionysus, who nodded. 'It is. Now that you know the origin story and we know some of their customs, we can set up an allyship.'

Apollo nodded, a little more confident. 'Yes. But, Nico, I agree with Dio. You should take care of yourself.'

It was silent for a moment, until Dionysus scraped his throat. 'If Apollo does not have anymore questions, I think you can go, Nico.'

Apollo jumped up. 'Yes! If the bond is coming along, I'll come back to you. Now you should go back to Will.'

I nodded and quickly got up. It felt like I should not have said some of these things.

'Dio, I…'

'I understand you did not know any of that. I must say, I had a hunch, but I never knew…' he shrugged. 'I really believe that you two speak the truth when you say the trogs are your friend. Yet, he went with them when he was in a bad place. That is important for me to analyse.'

Apollo looked at the table. 'I think I have a project to work on,' he muttered.

'Take some time to think before you do so,' Dionysus suggested.

Apollo got up from the table. 'Will do.' He ran a hand through Dionysus hair.

'Don't do that!'

'I'll do that whenever I want. Perks of being the older brother.' He gave Dionysus a wide grin, before disappearing back to Olympus.

A/N: okay this chapter is kind of 'when you tell your parents a funny story, but they turn it into a lecture.' Yet, also, it is very true.

This was originally going to be just Nico and Dionysus, but I figured this was better. Next chapter is Tartarus.

Pain is looking through chapters you wrote a while ago and seeing small mistakes you definitely knew were mistakes at the time, you just did not catch them while editting. I know I definitely made a few mistakes in this one.

Yeah it is a 'spinach smoothie' or a 'cumcumber smoothie' or whatever. Sh, it tastes like green.