Nico rolled out of bed and straight onto the floor with a groan. He'd promised that insufferable son of Apollo, Will, that he'd spend the next three days in the infirmary "healing". From what, he wasn't sure. Obviously, Fighting Gaea and her monsters had been taxing, but really. He was fine. Totally fine. Yeah, he felt like death warmed over, but that was usual.

Half an hour later, he was still laying on the floor, seriously debating the consequences of "accidentally" shadow-travelling to China. Would he probably melt into shadowy goo? Yes. But either way, he'd get out of what was inevitably going to be an extremely embarrassing experience.

It would've been one thing if he was just going to be spending the next few days lying in a bed, but considering what he knew about Will, there would be conversations involved. And for an 80-some-year-old, Nico had really bad social skills. Unfortunately for him, just as he was deciding between Beijing and Shanghai (he was leaning towards the latter, he'd had an… interesting incident involving an angry raccoon dog in Beijing a couple years back), there was a knock at the door. Two seconds later, as he was springing to his feet, Kayla Knowles came striding in.

"Will needs you in the infirmary stat, di Angelo," she announced, casually twirling an arrow between her fingers.

"I'm fine. Really," Nico said. "I'm sure he has plenty of other patients to attend to."

"Not an option. You have half an hour to shower, put on some clothes that aren't covered in skulls, and pray that my brother doesn't kill you for taking so long. I'll meet you outside my cabin."

"Accidenti," Nico muttered as Kayla jogged out, slamming the door behind her. 27 minutes later, clad in black skinny jeans, a leather jacket, and the camp t-shirt; he found himself walking to the infirmary. Kayla was at his side- one hand drumming out a rhythm on her thigh, the other balancing an arrow on her fingertips.

"Can I ask you something?" Nico ventured cautiously. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about the green-haired archer just yet.

"Shoot."

"Why are the shirts bright orange? Why not like, camo, or something more subtle?" To his surprise, Kayla let out a short bark of laughter.

"No one's really sure, actually. Austin thinks it was Mr. D's idea. Like if a bunch of us died under his watch because we didn't have a stealthy shirt, Zeus would change his punishment or something."

Nico nodded. That did seem like the kind of thing Dionysus would do. They spent the next few minutes walking in uncomfortable (at least to him) silence. A few paces from the infirmary, Kayla slowed to a halt, grabbing Nico's arm and turning him to face her. He jerked out of her touch instantly, hand reflexively falling to the hilt of his sword.

"Woah, chill!" she exclaimed, hands coming up as if to say: I'm defenceless, please don't murder me.

"I don't like being touched without permission," Nico said, injecting a threat into his voice to cover up the overwhelming panic he felt whenever someone grabbed him like that, which, admittedly, wasn't very often. Ever since Tartarus… no. He couldn't think about that. Not now. Not when he was so close to at least a dozen innocent people.

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Still. You don't need to stab me. I just wanna talk for a sec."

"About?"

"Will seems to be under the impression that you're leaving Camp Half-Blood. Like, forever.

"I was planning on it," Nico acquiesced.

"No."

"Pardon?"

"No!" Kayla repeated, louder this time. "Look, di Angelo. I get it. You haven't exactly had the easiest time at camp. But my brother's dealing with enough right now. He doesn't need to lose you too."

Nico furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why would Will care if I left?"

"Because he's a healer, and he knows you're hurting. If you go off and get yourself killed he'll blame himself for not being able to save you."

Nico sighed. "First of all, I know how to take care of myself. I don't plan to be murdered by monsters anytime soon. Second off, even if I do die, that's not his fault."

Kayla rolled her eyes again, so hard Nico was shocked they didn't fall out of their sockets. "I know, but he's not gonna see it that way. Besides, monsters won't hesitate to kill you just because of your lack of planning. You're a child of Hades, for gods' sake! You can't just go waltzing around the mortal world without attracting all kinds of attention."

"How about we compromise?" Nico proposed, agitatedly twisting the silver skull ring he always wore. He hated being on the spot like this, feeling so… looked at. "I stay until we've finished cleaning up Gaea's mess, and the infirmary is relatively empty."

"And then?" Kayla narrowed her eyes, her arrow now tucked into the pocket of her shorts.

"I leave. Maybe go to Camp Jupiter for a while."

"Maybe?"

Nico cursed under his breath. Apparently, stubbornness was a defining trait of children of Apollo. Although considering what he knew about the god, that wasn't really all that surprising. "Probably not," he admitted, turning his ring more aggressively. "Will doesn't need to know that, though."

Kayla planted her feet and placed her hands on her hips, looking Nico dead in the eyes. "You stay until camp has recovered. That I'm good with. The rest of your plan… not so much. So, I'm gonna compromise with your compromise. You stay until Will deems you physically and mentally healthy enough to survive more than two seconds in the outside world."

Nico tilted his head in consideration. "If Will knows what me being "healthy" means, won't he just keep coming up with excuses to keep me here?"

"Exactly!" Kayla said brightly. She moved past him towards the infirmary door, just as it shot open.

"Nico di Angelo," Will Solace scolded, a stethoscope dangling from his neck precariously. "Get your ghostly ass into a bed right now, or I swear to the gods, I'll pick one and tie you to it."

Nico groaned internally. Gods dam children of Apollo.