Breakfast, unlike lunch and dinner, wasn't a group affair.
It was nearly impossible to be with all of them on different schedules. When Nico woke up for his early morning shift, Percy and the night shift would just be closing their eyes.
Maybe that's why it was so surprising when he finally got up from his restless sleep, the moon still saying it's lingering goodbye, and he came across small crowd congregating around the picnic table.
His hand immediately went to his side, his stiff knuckles cracking as they tightened around the hilt of his blade. The scrape of his knife as he pulled it out, and the smooth metal shining in the moonlight, brought the few heads spinning towards him.
"Oh." he realized, lowering his weapon at the sight of less than dead bodies. Piper stood, a slight cautious smile on her face.
"A few of us couldn't sleep." She explained, gesturing towards the table. The doctor, along with the brothers and Katie, huddled over the picnic table, their eyes careful and guarded. Nico didn't return his knife, instead peering at the group with suspicion. Were they planning something? Was their kindness simply a ruse?
Nico eyed them for a long moment, mentally filing away the moment to retell in detail to Reyna once she woke up for her shift. He kept his weapon in clear view as he passed by them, staring unblinking as he walked by. He met a few of their gazes, squinting his eyes slightly to convey his distrust.
He kept going, the only fact holding him back from questioning them was knowing that Leo was waiting for his relief, and he got sloppy when he was tired. He climbed to the roof quickly, adjusting his weapons so they were tight against his body.
"Thank the gods." Leo muttered, standing and stretching from his spot. "I thought the sun was never gonna rise."
Nico didn't respond, only checking over his gun to avoid answering. Leo sighed at his lack of response and rubbed at his eyes."See you later, di Angelo. Wake me up for lunch, will ya?"
Nico only nodded this time, setting up his weapons and avoiding contact. Leo shuffled away, humming under his breath, while Nico began looking over the terrain.
It was a quiet shift, mostly just a few scattered walkers, more than usual but not so much that he couldn't handle it. He enjoyed the quiet, calmness of keeping watch. The sun grew larger in the sky, and the soft, dew on the grass frosted over. He listened to the group's soft conversation, their voices only echos from their places under him.
Frank showed up, soft bags gathering under his eyes, and dismissed Nico from his shift. Nico quickly, but neatly, packed up his weapons, and headed towards where the group was congregating for lunch.
Leo, his hair messy and rumpled, sat at the picnic table, yawning. The stew, probably from Annabeth's making, looked delicious, and the smell was even better. Percy and Jason had their heads folded together, with Reyna not far back as she looked over a map with ruthless scrutiny.
"Fresh vegetables!" Piper grinned into her bowl of soup, "Where'd you find these?"
"We gathered some seeds in the last town we stopped in." Annabeth grimaced, holding up a small, undergrown tomato. "No one's really got a green thumb around here." She sighed, "We've been putting them in the ground and watering them everyday but nothing grows past this size."
Katie, sitting quietly at the table, suddenly beamed, ecstatic at the story of their failures. "I grew up on a farm, and Grover - one of the boys on the run - used to volunteer at the community garden. We could - I mean, if you'd like, we could -"
"You know how to garden?" Leo grinned, suddenly interested, "A woman of many talents. Where have you been all my life?"
"Stop flirting." Annabeth ordered before turning a smile on the other girl. "You really think you can make something grow in that old dirt?"
Katie gave them a small shrug, her cheeks pinking at the attention. "I - I can try."
Annabeth nodded happily, sticking out her hand for the other girl to take. "Sounds decent. You're on garden duty, deal?"
Katie shook Annabeth's hand, "Deal. When can I start?"
"Eager, I like it."
"Go away Leo. " Annabeth hissed, glaring at the boy until he backed off, his arms up in full surrender. Katie brushed her frizzy curls behind her ear, her pink cheeks flushing a shade darker. Nico turned, checking out of the conversation and letting Annabeth discuss the rest of the details with the other girl.
Nico settled next to Reyna, stealing a cookie off her plate in the process, and leaned in close. "Anything new?" He muttered, taking a bite of the cookie. It was plain, and stale, but the sugar dusted on top more than made up for the fact.
Reyna glared at him for his theft but made no movement towards him. "We're tracking the walker's movements. I'm trying to figure out whatthey're being attracted too."
"Other than us, of course." Percy told them, an eyeroll in his sarcastic voice. His eyes flickered over to where Annabeth was standing, spooning stew out. "And that fire is growing pretty dim. Someone better tend to it."
Leo, always too eager to play with fire, jumped up to volunteer. Annabeth shrugged, handing off their few fire starting supplies, and went off to grab a drink.
Reyna sighed, bringing the attention back to her. "We've been here for months, Percy. And what, they're just now figuring out where we are?"
Percy rubbed his hand over his eyes, exhaustion filling the lines of his face. "Reyna, we've already risked scouting the area twice. And Frank almost got bit last time, it's not worth risking for some imaginary problem."
Reyna clenched her teeth, "I know it's something, Percy." She cut a glance towards Jason, who had remained quiet this entire time. "Jason? What do you think?"
Jason glanced over, and his eyes were full of something more than just the heavy emotion most of them carried these days. "I…" He looked between both of them, even flicking to Nico for a moment, before speaking again. "I think that maybe the stress might be getting to you, Reyna."
Nico watched Reyna, watched the tension in her body only grow stiffer, watched her hands flex and dance over the table, and when she spoke her voice was hard. "I understand what you're saying." She stood, not hesitating to meet their eyes. "This meeting is adjourned." Her eyes were careful and calculating as she left. "Valdez, walk with me."
Nico paused mid movement as he was standing to follow her. Leo jumped up, pushing the long metal rod into Nico's hands with simple orders to stay and not to let it go out. Nico frowned, tempted to ignore Leo's words and simply follow anyways.
It made sense, of course, because Reyna and Leo had been working on a new tactic to keep the walkers away, probably using fire or something of the likes. Nico had asked much, and Reyna hadn't shared. But it was logical, he could figure out, because now Percy and Jason didn't believe her and she had to figure it out by herself.
Nico tended the fire, impatiently waiting for Leo to return so he could meet with Reyna. Some time had past, the lunch shift long gone, and now even more people were surrounding the crackling fire and wooden picnic table.
He repressed a sigh at their loud voices and high laughs. The girls - most of them, at least, as Reyna was still gone, we're starting to gather together, talking loudly.
"Honestly," Annabeth confessed, cracking open a beer and passing it over to Katie. "I'm just so glad to have some more female company."
"But Reyna -?" Piper questioned with a laugh, pulling her drink close. Nico shot a glance over to her, one that no one really noticed but Piper. Piper noticed everything.
"Is like my sister." Annabeth finished for her, "But she's always so busy with Percy and Jason, and I don't want to bother her with my silly girl talk. And -" She sighed, tipping her head back, letting her blonde curls fall over her shoulder, "Sometimes I just need to complain about the lack of tampons in the post-apocalyptic world. Or rant about Percy without someone offering to decapitate him."
The girls answered by howling in laughter, both gripping at their bottles and kicking their legs up to rest on the cooler. Nico pulled his arms closer to himself, making himself smaller.
Annabeth look a long drink of her beer, "I was drowning in testosterone." She reflected on mournfully. "Leo was the only one who would paint his nails with me and he got annoyingly chatty after five minutes."
"We have girls nights once a month." Lou Ellen reassured her, patting her on her knee.
"Thank the gods. " Annabeth shook her head. "How are you three adjusting here, anyways?"
"I forgot how in love I was with sleeping indoors." Piper joked, "No mosquitoes biting at your every movement? It's like paradise ."
The girls giggled in agreement, and it was like one of those goddamn chick flicks Bianca loved.
But moments like that never lasted, and it was over and gone in almost the span of a second.
"Walkers!" Frank's voice yelled from the roof, "East, by the left entrance!"
They all jumped up, and Nico clenched the iron rod even tighter. The earlier light mood was suddenly mist, disappearing under the adrenaline flowing through each one of them. Nico could see the crowd of them - rotting flesh and dead eyes - and only clenched his weapon tighter. He quickly handed off the iron rod to Lou, the closest one to him without a weapon at her side, and drew the machete strapped at his leg. He could hear Frank yelling warnings, probably trying to inform the others.
Piper, a little ahead of him, was the first to reach the crowd, and Annabeth was almost immediately at her back. Nico, his blade balanced in his capable hands, swiped and cut with ruthless efficiency. There were probably fifteen or so of them, not enough to overwhelm them, but definitely more in a crowd than they were used to. He cut at the legs of another walker - younger, a teenager, maybe - and stabbed his knife through the eye socket. The body went limp, their arms dropping from where they were reaching out towards him, but his knife was stuck as he tried to pull back. He tried again, cursing out loud, but wasted no time in reaching for the smaller blade at his waist.
A body tackled him then, throwing him to the ground suddenly. He forced his head back, his neck only inches away from snapping teeth and jagged, decaying nails. He struggled to push it off, his arms pinned behind his back and his other shoulder taking most of the dead weight.
He focused mainly on keeping his visible skin - his bare hands, the soft pale skin of his neck - away from the walker's diseased body.
He cursed loudly, almost calling for help, as the body got a hold of his shoulder, pushing itself up. Nico started at it's horrible face - the deep wrinkled face, the ugly red sores, an open hole that might have been a piercing but looked more like a wound - and he thrusted about under it, his desperation only growing. He wanted to look around, catch any form of help, but he knew only too well that the persistent soundtrack of battle translated to no help coming soon.
He was near the point of just letting go, squeezing his eyes shut, and thinking about his sister's face, praying for it to be quick. But the biggest surprise, only moments later, was when a knife cut through, suddenly inches from his face, and he screwed up his face just in time for the deadly chucks of walker to drip on his face.
A hand, he couldn't exactly open up and see who yet, grabbed onto his free shoulder, and the grip was tight and warm and human. The heavy body was pushed off him and he was dragged up and away a few steps, his legs weak under the sudden relief.
"I'm going to wipe your face off now." A man's voice - familiar, but not incredibly known, told him. A cloth, rough but seemingly clean, met his filthy skin. Nico was unbearably grateful for the action, as well as the warning. He stood still, not risking opening his mouth to speak or his eyes to see, and waited until the other man was done.
"There." The man said, and after only a moment of consideration, peeked open his eyes experimentally.
It was the doctor, blond and impossibly tanned, it was Will standing before him, a blacked cloth in one hand, a bloodied knife in the other.
"Thanks." Nico breathed out, the situation finally catching up with him. "That...that could have been bad."
"And messy." Will agreed, flicking the bloody chunks off his knife. He didn't meet Nico's heavy gaze, looking as if he had completely dismissed it, and Nico was even more grateful to the boy.
Nico could easily see behind him now, and was glad to see most of the walkers littered across the ground. The others had arrived, Percy and one of the brothers - Connor, maybe? - and apparently, Will.
Annabeth cut down the last one, her short blade impractical but deadly in her hands. She kicked the walker - a boy, no older than thirteen - off her weapon. She heaved for breath, her hands clenched at her knees. Her knife, almost stained black with the dark, rotting blood, was clenched in one of her hands. Blood covered her arms and torso, with bits splattering on her face. Her hair was a tangled mess, and some of her golden curled were dyed dark with sweat and drips of her own blood. She spat onto the ground and grinned up at them. She looked hardened, she looked like she would last.
Percy sighed from behind Nico. "She's amazing."
Nico resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but it was Will who spoke.
"Whatever gets you going, man." He told Percy cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "Alrighty, that's over. Who's up for lemonade and check ups?"
Nico sighed, almost not-really wishing that zombie had gotten to him, but followed the group out.