When Nico woke up in the Big House the next day, it was to another blazing Sue Alarm. Ria was swearing, and a pretty blonde with baby blue eyes was exploding in purple glitter. His head was pounding.
"Thanks," he muttered after the alarm switched off and his best friend resettled herself in the chair at his bedside.
She nodded tiredly and rubbed at her broken leg. There was a bit of an awkward silence, something rare between them. He opened his mouth to complain about his headache, but Ria simply handed him a glass of nectar before he could comment. The throbbing inside his skull immediately eased.
"I'm sorry," he finally said, about half an hour later.
"It's fine, really. You know I will keep you safe Nicky," she teased. He ignored the jibe.
"Yeah. On the bright side, I think I managed to convince my dad to make you partially immortal."
"I heard. The wonders of what can be accomplished with the Nightmare Beauty Infection, yes?"
He laughed at her quiet sarcasm. "I can't believe both of us caught that."
"Both of us?" She asked warily.
"Of course," he scoffed. "We both know you'd never have a crush on me."
"Of course," she echoed with a wince.
"Your chest hurting you?" He misinterpreted the gesture.
Ria gave him a look that clearly doubted his intelligence, and glanced at the plate of ambrosia near his head.
"Right."
Attempting to lighten the mood, he jested, "I can't believe some of the things I said. Like that whole, 'Did your hand get hurt' thing! I'm surprised you didn't know what was wrong right away."
"I don't know. You did get pretty sappy watching Notebook the other day."
He snorted. "I didn't know that having my eye water after you stabbed it with the popcorn bag counted as sappy."
Aethria covered her heart with her hand and dramatically spoke, "What? They kept her from reading the letters? That's just so... so..." She lowered her hand. "And then came the water works."
"Says the girl who bawled watching Up."
"Don't even go there Ghost Kid. Ellie and Carl had something special. No one can touch that."
He ruffled her hair, and she smacked his hand away. They bantered a while longer. Finally, they tired enough to drift off to sleep.
Ria jolted up, realizing that Nico had received the honor of the last word in the argument.
"At least I'm not the child of HADES who got so scared they had nightmares for a week after watching Paranormal Activity."
When Nico didn't respond, she examined him more closely. He was sound asleep, with a small smile resting on his lips. Ria sighed and resettled in her chair, being visited by Hypnos not long after.