Chapter 2

"Di Immortals! What was that?" Annabeth said as she came over to where Jason sat stunned after what had just happened.

Jason had no words though; he was just as lost as the others so all he could do was shake his head to let them know that he was just as clueless about it as them.

Percy and Piper had arrived with Annabeth just in time to see Nico's clothes change color before he dashed off into the shadows. They had all called out to him to get him to stop but he was already gone.

They left everything at the table and split up to go look around camp to try and find their friend not realizing that someone had already beaten them to it.

…

From across the dinning pavilion the Iris and Hecate cabins had witnessed what their little charm had done and they all felt bad for unintentionally embarrassing the son of Hades in front of whole camp causing him to do something dangerous like shadow travel away, and judging by how fast Will Solace took off running towards the infirmary it was probably bad.

…

"Nico NO!" Will called out but it had been too late, Nico had already dived into the shadows and vanished.

Without a second though Will jumped up and ran as fast as he could towards the infirmary to get what he would need to help Nico if the effects of shadow traveling lasted. There was no time to waste so he had to hurry.

Will didn't know what he would do if Nico faded because he saw no other option but to run away in his moment of confusion, but he couldn't let himself dwell on those thoughts right now, he just needed to focus on finding the ingredients that Coach Hedge had taught him for the nature magic that worked best for Nico.

He rushed around trying to get everything together but he was missing just one thing, Unicorn draught and he was about to start panicking but then he remembered that there was some in a store room on the second floor of the Big House so he took off running to get it as soon as he could.

They didn't even know where Nico was or what condition he was in, if he was about to fade or-

Will drew up short as he entered the store room and saw Nico leaning against the wall by the window with sunlight falling on him.

Will snapped out of his shock at finding him there and rushed over to check what sort of state he was in, after finding that he was mostly solid except for the tips of his fingers and that he was only sleeping due to the energy drain the jump must have caused Will let out a sigh of relief.

Will pulled out the Coach's cure and went and grabbed a small bottle of Unicorn draught and brought them back to where Nico lay and set to work healing the son of Hades.

…

When Nico woke up he blinked open his eyes for a second before they blew wide upon realizing that he wasn't alone in the room and his clothes flashed from lime green to ice blue to teal and finally to true blue upon seeing who was sitting next to him.

Will Solace sat next to Nico and leaned against the cabinet next to him, his head resting on it. Nico noticed that the healer seemed worn out and for a brief instant his clothes flashed yellow-green but then took on a more golden yellow tone when he realized that Will had been holding his hand.

Nico shook that thought away, Will had probably just been checking to see if the darkness was going to cause him to fade and for a second Nico's clothes flashed a dull grey with his disappointment.

Nico jumped a bit when Will stirred and woke up.

Will turned and smiled at Nico when he realized that he was awake and well and Nico felt his cheeks heat up a bit and his clothes turned a faint violet upon seeing that smile. If Will noticed he didn't say anything about either.

"Please don't scare us like that again Deathboy." He said still smiling at Nico, meanwhile Nico tried for more of an annoyed pout that he really didn't feel.

"Don't call me that." But when his shirt flashed light pink he really did feel annoyed and it turned orange instead.

Ah so that's it…

Well now Nico had an idea of what was going on.

"I think someone hexed me." he said as the thought occurred to him and he pulled at his shirt to watch it take on a more intense and really offensive shade of orange that quickly changed to lime green then magenta when he felt Will squeeze his hand and it occurred to him that he hadn't let go yet. Yup this time he was definitely blushing.

"I doubt it's a curse, remember my dad is the god of curses so I can tell you that much, it was probably just a prank or something." Will said reassuringly and Nico felt himself relax and watched as his clothes turned into a nice shade of true blue, he had to admit that without the entire camp witnessing it this color changing thing was kind of interesting.

Suddenly Will let out an amused laugh causing Nico to look at him and his clothes to change to yellow, which only made Will laugh more and Nico to raise a curious brow to him.

"What?" he asked because he had no idea what the other boy could suddenly find so funny.

Will took a breath to calm himself down and smiled at Nico again, his eyes still shining with laughter and Nico's clothes took on a light pink hue.

"It's just that it's almost like you're a giant mood ring or something."

Nico's clothes turned yellow again as he knitted his brows together.

"A what?" he had no idea of what Will was talking about.

Will seemed a bit surprized that Nico didn't know what he was talking about but it passed by fast as he started to explain. "They're these accessories that have these stones that change color according to what mood you're in, hence the name, and each color has a specific meaning." he paused for a moment then smiled mischievously at Nico. "So Deathboy, what are you feeling now?"

Will didn't need a color chart to tell him what the bright magenta meant, the deep blush covering Nico's face was a good enough indicator.

"Don't worry, we'll figure out how to undo whatever this is. I doubt that whoever is responsible for this meant to upset you." his face turned stern as he looked Nico directly in the eye, "And when I say 'no Underworld-y magic' I mean absolutely No Underworld-y magic! Do you understand how dangerous that was? It's a good thing that Coach Hedge had told me how to help you if you were starting to fade again; I was really scared you know!" Wills voice had risen a bit by the end of this and Nico couldn't do much more than sit there looking down at the floor.

"I panicked okay? I didn't know what was going on so I got out of there the fastest way I could, I wasn't really thinking about it okay?" Nico said and Will released his hand to cross his arms over his chest as he sat back and stared at Nico, whose clothes had gone back to their usual color but took on a different shade of grey at the loss of the other's touch though he wanted to deny it.

But when Will's eyes softened once more when he glanced at him and he let out a steady breath Nico felt better. "Just promise me that you won't do that again okay?"

The concern in Will's voice really touched Nico's heart and he nodded in response. "Okay, I promise I won't freak out like that again."

The amount of relief that showed on Wills face was amazing. "Good, now come on, everyone was really worried about you. You should be able to stand and walk now, but I still want you to spend the rest of the day in the infirmary so that I can keep an eye on you." he winked at Nico as he helped him to his feet. "Plus there's not likely to be anyone else around so you don't have to worry about anyone else seeing your mood ring outfit."

Nico smirked. "Except you because you're really enjoying this right now aren't you?" his clothes had gone light pink again and he chalked that up to his teasing mood.

Will tried for a nonchalant attitude as he shrugged. "Hmm maybe, maybe I just like the fact that you can look good in any color."

And there was the magenta again stronger than ever, his blush too.

Stupid son of Apollo and his stupid complements…

"Whatever." Nico said as he followed Will out of the room to go find his friends. But the color again changed to gold as he felt more hopeful after hearing that and then a deep violet before he managed to finally get his emotions in check.

By the time they left the upper level of the Big House and his clothes returned to normal.

Black = Intense, Stressed

Brown = Troubled, Restless

Red = Rage, Anger

Orange = Aggressive, Irritated, Edgy, Sarcastic

Golden Yellow = Hope

Yellow = Confused, Puzzled, Incredulous, Curious

Yellow-Green = Worried

Lime Green = Shocked, Surprised

Emerald Green = Triumph, Hyper, Energetic, Mischievous

Dark Green = Disgusted, Ill, Nauseous

Teal = Alert, Nervous

Ice Blue = Fear, Scared, Panic

Light Blue = Sleepy, Tired

True Blue = Relaxed, Calm

Dark Blue = Bored

Blue-Violet = Serious, Confident, Concentrating

Violet = Happy, Pleased

Light Purple = Excited

Magenta = Embarrassed

Dark Pink = Silly

Light Pink = Flirty, Amused, Playful

White = Hollow, Blank, Void

Grey = Sad, Hopeless, Dejected, Discouraged, Gloomy

Blue-Grey = Sad for someone