Smiles filled the room and it was beautiful. Piper and Jason sat together on their sofa, nodding at Katie who was lying under their coffee table and making up nonsense stories. Nico sat next to me on the other lounge, deep in thought. He turned to me, eyes blank. What could he be thinking about?

I smiled, feeling truly happy. I was surrounded by friends and Nico, and we had a little girl. What more could I want?
"So, when are you thinking of heading back to camp?" Jason stood up, casually walking to their fridge for more juice for Katie.

"Maybe tonight, we've got a few more things to do in town."
"Oh, yeah. Like what?"

"We've got to get some clothes for Katie. Don't we?" I looked at her, noticing she'd perked up when I said clothes. She was giggling and had shifted in front of Piper, who was retying her ringlets in pigtails.

After lunch with Jason and Piper, we headed back to the main street of New Rome. The white marble shop-fronts had large windows, which were occupied by miscellaneous clothes, toys, fresh groceries and furniture. Nico and I held Katie's hand, occasionally swinging her as we strolled. After each swing, she'd erupt into a fit of giggles. We were passing by a shop with purple butterflies and dragonflies painted onto the window. Katie stopped walking and let go of Nico's hand, pointing at the shop.
"Pretty dresses!" She squealed and started jumping up and down, "Can we go see the dresses, Daddy?"

I gave Nico a questioning look. He nodded, smiling at Katie. I nodded back.

"How about we get you some nice outfits to show everyone back at camp, huh?" We opened the door and walked inside, a small bell chiming upon our entry. Inside, some girls sat behind the counter, chatting and hemming a shirt each. Katie didn't notice them, instead bouncing over to the rack of purple, blue, red and green dresses that they had.
"Papa, I need help. I can't reach." Her hand was outstretched and grasping for the skirt of a green and blue sparkling dress. Nico complied.
She giggled and went into a change room, and I pulled the door shut. She knocked on the door and I obliged. She stepped out of the change room, in a blue and pink flowery long-sleeved dress.
"Whaddya think?" she twirled around in a circle, the skirt catching and spinning out slightly with her. Nico and I grinned. She was adorable.
"Beautiful, sweetie. But, hm..." Nico tapped his chin and looked around. His eyes set upon a spinning accessory holder, and he went over, picking up a pink butterfly headband. He put it in her hair, pushing it out of her eyes, "...do you think it matches now?"
"Yeah, Papa," she giggled and shook her head, swishing her hair around. She moved back into the stall as I picked out another outfit for her to try on. I looked back at Nico and leaned on the edge of the chair he had sat back in.
"Since when did you know anything about fashion?"

"Since I used to watch Bianca and my mum pick outfits for each other when I was little. Bi also used to tell me everything about colours, and she usd to plait my hair when it was long."
I was taken aback. How did I not know any of this? How did I keep forgetting that Nico had had a sister? I blushed, embarrassed about my question. Katie rushed back out to us, and jumped onto Nico's lap. It was strange. I'd never seen Nico act like this around a kid before. It was even weirder that she seemed to get along with him so much.
"Whaddya think, Daddy?"
"You look marvellous, darling."

It took over an hour of Katie trying on dresses and shirts and shorts and shoes before we left. We headed back to Jason and Piper's, bringing with us two very full bags of assorted clothes. It wasn't that far away from the shops, but with bags to carry and a toddler who wanted to stop and pet every puppy she saw and smell every flower, it took us roughly three quarters of an hour.
"We're back! Is anyone home?" Nico rapped on the door frame, having dropped one of the bags.

"In the kitchen, we're just baking some stuff ." Jason's voice echoed through the doorway.

"Yeah, alright. But...umm, the door's locked."

"Oh right, I'll grab it for you. Jason, let go of me." Piper's laughter increased as she walked to the door, unlocking it and ushering us in. She had some flour on her cheek and some pink frosting in her bun. We followed her back into the centre of the house for the second time today. Jason was standing behind the breakfast bar and had some blue frosting on his chin and pink dye on his hands.

"Ah, I see someone's been shopping."

"Uh huh, Daddy and Papa and I got me some pretty dresses. "

"That's nice, maybe later we should throw a little fashion parade so that Jason and I can see your pretty new dresses."

Nico looked over at Jason and nodded at the door to where they presumably had their guestrooms. Jason glanced from Nico to Katie and gave him a thumbs up. Katie started yawning, solidifying our belief that it was nap time.

"Come on, sweetie. Let's go have a nap. You can have your fashion parade when you wake up."

Nico stretched out his hand and started walking her to the room. "I like my dresses."

I felt really awkward, just standing in the hallway with a bag of clothing. Jason was whipping the last of the icing, adding the last few drops of blue and pink. I watched his hands, and their methodical movements, in a trance.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Hot!" Piper was yelping as she overturned a tray of chocolate, or somewhat burnt vanilla, cupcakes. She then dropped the tray in the sink, the dishwater hissing against the metal. Jason put down his icing spatula and wrapped her thumb in a dishcloth. Pushing the icing to the side, he bounced her up onto the counter, removing the cloth.

"Oh no. What happened? Do you want me to kiss it better?" He teased her, raising it to his lips and kissing it until she was laughing. They were really cute together, but I still felt like I was intruding. They were more Nico's friends than mine.

After clearing my throat slightly, they looked up and realised that they weren't alone. Piper then slowly jumped down onto the floor, and grimaced. She cupped her face, and whispered something to Jason, who nodded.

"Hey, do you think you could help me apply some more salve on my face? Jason reckons I don't get the right amount. Otherwise I might be stuck looking like this forever," Piper tried to joke, but it came out sad and pessimistic. I set the clothing bag down beside the kitchen table and followed her into their master bedroom.

It was stunning, They must have had this house already set up before they stopped living at camp, because there was no way in Hades that it was pulled together so quickly. It was clean and light; an acacia bed frame, with blue and white meadows decorating the duvet. Some wicker chairs, covered in blue blankets and pillows, adorned the large full-length window in front of the bed. I followed her further in to the heart of the room; the ensuite was just as clean. The marble vanity held the bare minimum, toothbrushes and toothpaste, a hairbrush covered in elastics and a jar of healing salve. She opened the jar, a harsh scent of tea-tree and eucalyptus emanating from it. Gliding her fingers across it, a slight layer came away along with them. Piper winced each time she smoothed it into the wounds, I could tell she wasn't eager about it.

"How's it feel? Do you think it's getting better?"

"It annoys me more than anything else; it itches, and it burns and sometimes I just want to keep ice on it all day."

"Would you like me to try and take some of the pain away?"

"If you want to, you don't have to though. I was just really giving Jason time to finished icing the cupcakes for Katie, Nico and you."

"Well, I'm sure that this can give him a bit more time. I just want to warn you though, I won't be able to heal the scarring. It's far too extreme, plus I'd need the proper equipment." She nodded. I rubbed my hands together, trying to heat them up slightly, before resting them on her cheeks. They glowed slightly, a small pocket of golden light spilling from under my fingers. I could feel a slight itch on my eyebrow, and felt something like a bad sunburn across my cheek. Letting go of her. Piper smiled. Let's just hope that it worked.

Finished with that, we walked back out to the main room to wait for Katie to wake up from her nap and have some Jason specialty-decorated cupcakes.