Disclaimer: All rights to Rick Riordan. I own nothing, but the plot.

Themes of self-harm, anxiety, and depression are expressed within this story. TRIGGER WARNING! Please do NOT read if these themes upset you. TRIGGER WARNING!

Criticism is appreciated, but please no hate. Please review and leave me suggestions! Enjoy!

Jason's POV:

Something was wrong with Nico di Angelo. And he was going to get to the bottom of it. As were Percy and Hazel, who were following close behind him, as he made his way to the Hades cabin. He was so intent on making it to Nico that he almost missed Hazel grabbing his arm.

"Jason, stop!"

He stopped and looked back at Hazel. She nodded over to the left. He followed her gesture and noticed a certain son of Apollo sitting by the fire with a young girl. They were talking quietly. Jason silently approached.

"Will?"

The blond son of Apollo whipped his head around. He sniffled as he stood; Jason could see that he had been crying. "Jason, hi," He shook his hand. "I'm so sorry I missed the meeting, some... family stuff came up."

Jason narrowed his eyes at the lie. He nodded at the girl who was there, and she got up and disappeared. He sat Will down. "Why don't you tell me what's really going on? Because I know it's not that."

"I-I. It's complicated." So that's how he was going to play at it.

"I see. Have you talked to anyone about what's going on? Have you spoken to Nico?"

Will uncomfortably shifted when Nico's name was mentioned. There was the root of the problem. "I've talked to my friends about it. I'm fine."

"You aren't fine, I can obviously see that. Are you and Nico fighting?"

Will cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, but that isn't your business."

"It is my business; he's my brother." Hazel piped up.

"And he hurt himself last night!" Percy revealed. "Was it because of you?"

"Percy!" Jason warned, but the damage was already done.

"Hurt himself?" Hazel looked confused. "What do you mean hurt himself?"

"Percy," Will's eyes were sad as he looked at Hazel. "That wasn't your information to share."

"What information? What are you talking about?" Hazel questioned, looking around at all the boys.

"We will talk about it later," Jason dismissed, looking back at Will. "What happened?"

Will shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it. Nico- Nico said some things that—I don't even know. You want answers? Ask him. Because I am just as confused as you are," Will's voice cracked with emotion. He stood up quickly, throwing a goodbye over his shoulder. "I'll see you guys at the Solstice tonight."

"What on earth happened between those two?" Percy asked, in shock over Will's reaction.

"I have no idea, but I intend to find out," Jason started walking away.

"Hang on, stop!" Hazel said forcefully. Jason turned to face her. "How does Nico hurt himself?"

Jason glared at Percy. "It's not really our place to talk about."

"I assumed Hazel knew." Percy defended.

"Knew what?" Hazel asked, but Jason ignored her question, still staring critically at Percy.

"Nico didn't tell anyone, willingly," Jason said. "Will found out when he was healing him. I found out accidentally."

"Found out what?" Hazel exclaimed. "Stop ignoring me."

"I'm sorry, but I can't take back what I said!" Percy said. "At any rate, she already knows."

Jason looked up, taking a breath, before looking back at Hazel. "Nico cuts himself."

"He what?" Hazel's jaw dropped. "Why?"

Jason put his hands up, showing his confusion. "Not entirely sure, but it's a…" he struggled for the word. "… a way to cope with his depression and anxiety."

"That's terrible! He hurts himself because of his mental illnesses?" Hazel put her hand over her mouth. "How long has he been doing it?"

Jason shook his head at Hazel's question. "Since before I knew him."

Hazel's eyes were filled with tears. "We have to stop him; I need to go talk to him"

Jason grabbed her arm before she went racing down the hill. "No. Nico is trying to isolate himself as it is. If he finds out that we told you, he would completely lose his trust in us; he'll cut us off."

"I can't just stand by and watch as he mutilates himself!"

"We are going to look out for him," Percy reassured.

"Because you've done so well at that the past couple of months!" Hazel retorted.

"Enough. We all had responsibilities to fulfill." Jason explained. He put his hand on Hazel's shoulder. "I know you want to be there for your brother, but you cannot tell him that you know about his self-harm. You have to give him the time to tell you on his own."

Hazel laughed bitterly. "And you think my brother will? You don't know him as well as I thought you did."

"It might take some time, but yes. I do think he will confide in you. He's opened up to me; it just takes time." Jason said.

Hazel looked like she still wanted to go talk to him, but she relented, nodding. "I understand. I'm just worried about him."

"I am too. And we are going to go figure out what is wrong," he started to walk back towards the Big House.

"Why aren't we going to Nico?" Percy asked.

"Will didn't open up, you really think Nico would? We are going to someone who I think will have some answers." Jason informed.

Jason pushed the door open to the infirmary when they arrived. Kayla jumped at the sound. The door shut behind Percy.

Hazel looked at Kayla. "What in Hades name happened to our brothers? Because if I'm not mistaken, they were fine two days ago."

"I thought he would have gotten you guys on his side." Kayla dismissed.

"Side?" Percy asked.

"Nico hasn't and will continue not to tell us anything. We are not taking any sides. We want what's best for both of them." Jason calmly stated.

"Nico threatened to break up with Will," Kayla said. "Will doesn't know if he actually did or not. It's unclear." Her words caused gasps around the room.

Jason said. "Do you know why?"

Kayla shook her head. "Will only told the basics. Two days ago, Will got home in the middle of the night. He went to go check on Nico and he was injured…" Kayla trailed off realizing his audience. "… doing stuff for his dad."

Hazel waved her off. "I already know about his self-harm."

Kayla's eyes widened, but she continued. "Okay, well then. Will healed Nico and, in the process, drained his energy, knocking himself out. When Nico woke the next morning, he rushed Will to the infirmary to heal. He stayed with him all day until we had a conversation. I said some things I regret, and Nico stormed off. I was scared he was going to cut himself again, so I sent Jason after him to go find him and make sure he was okay."

Jason picked off where she left off. "Yeah, I found him in the arena. He was agitated about something, but he snapped at me when I questioned him about it. So, I decided just to train with him. We started dueling…"

"You dueled him? When he was in that state?!" Kayla exclaimed.

Jason turned red, and guilt crept into his system. "I- I wasn't going to hurt him. But he was already weak. I- I accidentally cut him. I tried to stop, but he kept pushing me, so I had to keep fighting. He summoned some skeletons and then he almost passed out..."

"Woah, first of all, you hurt him? Also, you didn't think to take him to the infirmary when he almost passed out?" Kayla asked.

"I gave him some ambrosia and he seemed okay." Jason defended. "I brought him back to his cabin. I was gonna stay with him, but he was pretty adamant about me leaving. So I reminded him that Hazel was going to be there so not to do anything drastic. I didn't think he was going to hurt himself."

"He did," Percy provided. "I noticed that he was wearing bandages on his arms at the meeting."

"And he did that while I was in the room?" Hazel asked tears in her eyes.

"He's been doing it for a while," Kayla said. "He knows how to hide it. I should have been paying better attention to him. Will asked me to watch over him and I failed to do so."

"This isn't your fault, Kayla," Jason reassured again. "It is on all of us. I hate to admit it, but I kind of fell out of contact with him the past month or so. I tried to iris-message him, but it usually didn't go through. I am one of his best friends and I wasn't there for him."

The room fell silent before Kayla continued with her story. "Last night, Nico eventually came back to the infirmary. Will had woken up and we were talking about Nico getting so terrible. He overheard us and took a lot of what we said out of context. He started yelling at Will and Will started yelling back so I left. I came back after about ten minutes and found Will sobbing on the floor. He explained that Nico had asked for a break and some space, claiming that Will was too overprotective and overbearing. That he wanted to be alone."

"He is trying to isolate himself," Jason analyzed. "But what caused it?"

"I don't know," Kayla admitted. "Will wouldn't say anything further. But he was crushed. He loves Nico more than anything and doesn't want to lose him. It took me, Lou Ellen, and Cecil a good two hours to calm him down and get him into bed. He slept all through the meeting; that's why I came."

"Will is so good for and to Nico. I am not too happy with my brother for handling this situation so poorly. He should be coming to us, not isolating himself." Hazel was agitated.

"We aren't going to let that happen. We are going to be there for him, whether he likes it or not," Jason asserted. "We should probably go check on him, make sure he hasn't done anything drastic."

"Yeah, that might be wise. Who knows what he could do to himself when he's this upset," Kayla said. They all exchanged worried glances before the trio exited the infirmary.

Nico's POV:

Mumbled voices broke Nico out of his relaxing nap.

"Nico?" Hazel's voice said.

He stayed silent, not really wanting to talk to his sister. He heard footsteps approach. His curtains were drawn back and a quick hand touched his shirt, pulling his sleeve back. Nico barely stopped himself from flinched, feeling Hazel brush against his cuts. She retreated back to the door.

"He's asleep," she whispered. Who was she talking to?

"Good," Jason's voice carried across the cabin. "He said he slept all night, but I highly doubted that. He was dead on his feet." He paused for a moment. "Did you see his wrists? How bad were they?"

Nico's heart stopped. Hazel didn't know about his self-harm. Why was Jason talking about it? He must have told her about it. Jason had betrayed Nico's trust!

"I didn't move the sleeve up too much because I didn't want to wake him, but there were still bandages over them."

"Did you see any blood?" Percy's voice sounded too. His friends were talking about him, sharing his darkest secrets! How could they? "There was blood on them this morning when I saw them at the meeting?"

"No fresh blood, only dried. Isn't that a good thing?" Hazel murmured.

"It means he didn't cut his wrists again," Jason explained. "When he wakes up, we need to get him to the infirmary to heal the cuts from last night."

"He won't go willingly," Percy reminded.

He's right Nico thought.

"Then we should force-feed him ambrosia while he's asleep." Anxiety went through Nico at his sister's words. No one was forcing anything down his throat.

"No," Jason protested. "When I gave him some last night, he was burning up since he didn't have anything in his stomach. I don't think he's eaten at all in the last two days."

"He's starving himself too?" Hazel asked. There was no response. "Oh, Nico." She murmured.

"Should we wake him so he can eat?" Percy suggested.

"He needs more sleep," Jason said. "We should let him rest and try to get him to eat something before we leave."

"Should I stay in here and watch over him? Make sure he doesn't do anything?" Hazel asked.

So, they are trying to put me on suicide watch, huh? Nico thought.

"Let's just leave him be for now. We'll send someone to check on him every hour or so. Make sure he's asleep or be with him when he wakes." Jason directed.

Hazel and Percy must have nodded their affirmation because a moment later, the cabin door opened and closed. Nico was left alone again. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to stop the tears that were threatening. Although he was trying to distance himself from his friends, he hadn't wanted them to betray him. It hurt Nico deeply that they were talking about his secrets with blatant disregard for the confidentiality in which Nico had told them. He didn't need them; he needed to be alone. He turned over and tried to fall back asleep.

Nico's POV:

He trudged to the camp boundary, looking to see if anyone else was coming. He grumbled as he knelt down in the grass, conserving strength. He had missed all his meals throughout the day, as he had been asleep the whole time. He had slept for hours and was really irritated when he woke up, which is why he usually didn't nap during the day.

It was already 5 o'clock and the Solstice started at 7. He didn't know how long the van took to get into the city, but he bet that traffic would be terrible. It would just be so easy for him to shadow-jump, but he had "doctor's orders" that he wasn't allowed to. Although he thought we are taking a break- which sent a pain through his heart.

"Nico?" Jason was eyeing him suspiciously. "Are you okay?"

He shook his thoughts away as he stood, ignoring Jason's outstretched hand. He decided not to confront Jason about his slip-up in telling Hazel yet. "Fine. Are we ready to go?" The sooner we go, the faster we can get back home.

"Yeah, I think everyone is ready." Jason looked around at the gathered demigods.

Percy came up to stand next to Jason. They both tried to speak at the same time.

"Campers-"

"Hey everyone-"

Their faces both turned red. Jason and Percy always, unintentionally, fought for who was the unofficial 'leader' of quests or activities. They both gestured for the other to continue. Jason was insisting that Percy go since this was his camp. Annabeth rolled her eyes and pushed herself to the front, taking charge.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go to Mount Olympus?" There was a muttering of affirmations from everyone. "Now, before we go, Chiron, who will not be joining us, wanted me to go over some ground rules. The most important one is to be on your best behavior and be professional. We want the gods to see how their representatives on Earth successfully reflect the ideals that formed our society. So demigods, let's pack up the van and get ready to go. We are late as it is." Annabeth finished.

The demigods started moving toward the vans. Nico tried to pick the van that was furthest away from Will, but he was jostled into the second van. He moved to the back of the van, to the window seat. Jason smushed right next to him. Traitor. And of course, Will sat right next to Jason.

Nico shifted and looked away, trying to avoid eye contact with the son of Apollo, but he couldn't seem to look away. As always, he was drawn to Will's infectious personality and drawing aura. He glanced over to see that Will's leg was bouncing up and down, hands fidgeting. He noticed bandages on Will's hands. Was he taking up his old habits again?

The bandaged hands were messing with the bracelets on his wrists. Nico had learned to read Will. And he was nervous. Nico expected him to be upset. And when he was upset, Will remained still and zoned out, trapped in his own thoughts. But he appeared to be anxious about something. What? Seeing his father for the first time in years? (If his father was even there. The sun god's fate was unknown after Zeus blamed him for the war) Being in the same car as Nico? Nico had to remind himself that he shouldn't care about Will. He had to distance himself from the people he loved. But that didn't mean he couldn't care about them or worry right? He turned away as he noticed Will looking back at him.

He glanced at the other five demigods in the van with them. Reyna was driving, with Annabeth in the passenger seat. Percy was in between Connor and Travis Stoll and he appeared to be wanting to be anywhere but between the bickering brothers. Nico knew there were fifteen total demigods coming. Hazel, Frank, Leo, Calypso, Piper, Clarisse, and Thalia were in the other van with Argus driving. Even though a lot of emphasis had been placed on including lesser-known and minor gods, the Winter Solstice still focused on the Twelve Main Olympians, so the campers who came represented most of the Twelve Olympians as well as their Roman counterparts.

"So, what's this whole shindig even about?" Travis voiced Nico's thoughts. He hadn't payed any attention to what Annabeth or Chiron had been repeating for the last couple of days.

"Have you been listening at all to Chiron? He's gone on and on about it." Annabeth asked, exasperated.

The brothers looked at each other. "Do you want the truth?" Travis asked.

"I just want you guys to pay attention. We've repeated it over and over."

"Well repeat it once more, for good measure," Connor suggested.

Annabeth sighed as she launched into a spiel. "This Winter Solstice is about the gods finally recognizing the success of the Seven in completing our quest and our assistance in defeating Gaea at the Feast of Spes-"

Percy interrupted her, "But it's mostly about celebrating the gods for their participation in defeating the Giants. We are there to glorify their victory. It wouldn't have been possible without the demigods, but the gods claimed responsibility for the victory."

"You win and lose some, eh?" Travis joked.

"Exactly, but we did get invited so we need to be gracious and respectful to the gods. Enjoy the celebration, even if it isn't about us, but no tomfoolery or senseless drama." Annabeth looked between him and Will. Nico guessed they were pretty obvious about their fight. Silence fell over the van.

"Well, this is awkward. Have you guys ever heard the joke about the demigod and monster who walked into a bar?" Connor asked.

"Really?" Travis looked at his brother with an incredulous look.

"What? I'm just trying to lessen the tension that is palpable in this car."

"That's a big word for you. Did you strain your brain thinking of it?"

"You're so original, did it hurt your brain thinking of that zinger?" Connor said sarcastically.

"You are so annoying."

"Your mom's so annoying."

"We have the same mother!"

"Oh, she didn't tell you? You're adopted."

"Haha, you are so-"

"Boys!" Annabeth shouted. "There is no need for this. Both of you quiet down, or else you will both be waiting in the van during the Solstice. Do you really want to embarrass yourselves like that in front of your father?" Neither of them answered. "Hello?"

"You told us to quiet down, we were just doing what you told us." Connor defended.

"Di Immortales!" She cursed. "Reyna, how much longer?"

"Patience is the key to good leadership." She stated calmly, weaving her way through New York traffic. "As well as order and discipline."

"As you can see, we do things a bit differently on the Greek side." Percy pointed out.

"Order and discipline are not included in some campers' vocabulary." Annabeth shot a withering look back at the Stoll's. Nico prayed they would get to the Empire State Building before someone got thrown into the midst of evening traffic.

Will's POV:

That had to be one of the most uncomfortable car rides that Will had ever had in his life. He could tell Nico was looking at him the whole time and the Stoll's kept making comments about the tension in the van. After what seemed like hours, they finally made it to the Empire State Building. The huge group walked into the lobby. Percy took the lead and walked straight to the security guard at the front desk, much to the dismay of the tourists waiting in line.

Will, who had inherited excellent hearing, listened to the conversation.

"Hey, six hundredth floor key card, thanks," Percy stated, leaning against the desk. The guard didn't even look up from his computer.

"No such floor-"

"Oh c'mon, you know me. You are literally here every time I request an audience with the gods."

"Lower your voice, kid."

"I'm going to keep talking about how Mount Olympus is on the six hundredth floor until I get the key card. They literally invited us. Why are you being so difficult?"

The guard handed over the key card. "All I ask is some manners and a little gratitude. Is that so much?"

Percy snatched the card away. "Thanks so much!" He said sarcastically. He rejoined the group. "Let's rollout. Two groups in two elevators."

They slipped past the long lines and groups to get into the elevators. The guests complained, but security let them through.

"Maybe you should let me handle negotiations next time, yeah?" Annabeth suggested.

Percy rolled his eyes as they all got into the elevator. On the speakers, 'Want You Back' by the Jackson 5 was blaring. Will tried not to look at Nico, who had gotten pushed into the same elevator and looked miserable about it. Connor and Travis seemed to notice what song was on.

"So, lovely weather we're having, huh Connor?"

"I would say so, Travis. Cold and bitter, just like the atmosphere in this elevator."

"Knock it off you two," Annabeth ordered. She looked at Will and Nico. "If you guys can't forget about your personal drama while we are here, then I'm going to have to ask you both to wait in the lobby."

"I'm not even doing anything." Will and Nico said in-sync. They gained eye contact with each other and broke it simultaneously.

"At any rate, we can't have any hurt feelings get in the way of our interactions with the gods." Reyna assessed. "Please be poised and professional. I want to make a good impression."

The elevator fell silent except for the Jackson 5. Will took the remaining minutes in the elevator to actually look at Nico. He was dressed in his usual black attire: black skinny jeans, black converse, a black skull t-shirt under a black jacket. He had yet to get a new aviator jacket as it had been destroyed during his quest. Will had one all wrapped in a box back in his cabin to give to Nico for Christmas, but if they actually broke up, it would all be for nothing.

He noticed the way Nico was holding himself. He looked defeated. And exhausted. He guessed that Nico hadn't slept much the previous night and judging from the way he was holding his arms (and the fact that he had seen them that morning), he had cut himself pretty badly last night. He was withdrawing into himself and trying to distance himself from everyone, Will gathered that much.

He looked away from Nico and at the doors. The elevator had stopped, and the doors shuddered open. Will stared in awe at the majesty of Mount Olympus. Although he had been there before, every time he saw it, it took his breath away. A dryad blocked the view as she came to welcome them.

"Welcome heroes, to Mount Olympus. The Winter Solstice will begin shortly!"