Ouch.
Well that hurt. How could he? Nico was only trying to help his inexperienced fifteen-year-old brother. He didn't have to go so far to hurting his feelings. Just because he hadn't suffered the loss of a…
Nico kept his emotions under control. It was almost taking over him like it was trying to hijack his whole body.
Mrs O'Leary whined by his feet. He patted her, "It's ok, I know he didn't mean it; you know that too."
The hellhound cheered up and wagged its tail, waiting for Nico to play with her.
Nico smiled and threw the ball. He was happy that Mrs O'Leary had stayed with him, even though she technically belonged to Percy who was now happily making more demigods with Annabeth.
Wait. No, that's not right. What is a half-blood plus a half-blood. Well two halves equals to one. Their children are going to be gods? No. That's not right either.
"Nico."
He jumped at the sound of his name, but Nico was even more surprised at who said it.
Nico turned to the rainbow mist hovering above his lair.
"You," he said, showing no sign of like or dislike; the way professionals worked.
"I'm truly sorry to bother you, Ni-"
"Don't. Say. My. Name."
"I'm sorry, I was wondering if you would like to join…" Ava swallowed her words when she saw his expression. Perhaps she had chosen the wrong method for this. It wasn't like she was the President who could make spectacular speeches and in minutes gain much support. Well forget support; she was having trouble just keeping his attention.
"Please, son of Hades. I beg of you to help."
"Why should I help you? For all I know you might be planning to kill me so that you could get Alex on your side."
"It's not thing like that, please." She had to hurry. The drachma coins were not enough to last a long while.
"No. I'm not a part of this war. I don't care about what happens. I'll just live with the consequences."
"Nico! Why do you have to be like this? Please. I know Bianca wouldn't want you to join this war, but she'd want you to do what's best for everyone."
Nico sighed. She hit it. Bull's eye. To be quite frank, it wasn't that hard for anyone to get the 'dead sister spot'.
"Something along those lines. You've told the same things to Alex, haven't you? Why don't you follow your own advice, and in this case, your sister's?" Ava said as the rainbow dispersed.
Having rapid reflex reactions, Nico threw another drachma where the rainbow had previously been, allowing them another two minutes or so.
"I'm still not joining you, but Ava… remind Alex what its like to be in love. Keep him safe."
Ava was stunned. What? Did she hear him right? Remind Alex what… love was? She continued to stare at nothing in particular, but she watched memories of their time together play back in her head.
The rainbow had long vanished before she came to a realisation. She missed him.
And somewhere deep, very and extremely deep of inside him, he missed her too.
"Hey, little violent goddess on wings? Can you hear me?" Ruth brandished her hand about Ava's face.
"Ava? What's wrong? What did he say?" Ben asked, concern warped into his face.
"Hello? We have to call Max and the others now."
"Ruth, stop doing that! Some time soon, you're going to hit her in the face."
"That was very much my plan."
"I wouldn't want to get her angry; that headshot is forever going to be etched into my eyelids," Kai chuckled.
"Ava, what's going on?" Faye asked. "Ava!"
The daughter of Hermes was brutally pulled out of her reveries.
"Oh, finally. I told you it worked." Ruth smirked. "Too bad I didn't get a chance to actually do any damage."
Faye shook her head at Ruth and turned to Ava, "Are you ok?"
Ava nodded, "What do I tell Max?"
"Leave the talking to us, violent goddess."
"Can you do that rainbow thing again?" Kai asked.
"Um, to be honest, I have run out of drachma coins. The only option left is for us to use other means of communicating."
"Like?"
"Well, I could just get the phone to function regardless of its condition."
"Why didn't you do that before? Some kind of goddess you are."
"I'm not sure about Nico having a phone to receive the call."
Ruth's cheeks flushed. Of course he didn't have a phone. What would an emo-like twenty-seven year old want with a phone?
"Some kind of genius you are, Ruth," Kai and Ben laughed.
"Here's the phone," Faye passed it to her. For this day and age, even Ava had seen more high-tech equipment.
"We're a little too poor to be able to afford anything fancy." Ben stated, seeing her reaction.
"You know, being on the run and all," Kai shrugged.
"I understand." Ava smiled, while the phone was automatically dialing away with just her stare.
"I have to learn how to do that," Ben whistled.
"I can teach you. Only if you come with me again."
"Where?"
"Back to Alex."