Hello dear readers and happy December 4th! This chapter's slightly longer so yay! and someone asked for more Reyna so I gave you more Reyna... She's not a character I'm an expert on so I'm sorry if I made her a little OOC, I tried my best.

happy reading :)

A very Percy Jackson Advent

December 4th

For the first morning they'd been on the Argo II, Leo wasn't up at the crack of Dawn. That gave Nico the chance to sit and eat his breakfast alone for once without the whole deal with Hazel giving him worried glances and those glares, that Nico was sure were suspicious ones, that he got from Jason. He never ate much in front of people because he couldn't eat when he was nervous, and people made him nervous. Now that he was alone he served himself a huge plate of bacon, egg and breakfast muffins and was just about to tuck in when he heard frightened, heavy breathing.

At first he thought it must be a ghost. He didn't normally stay in one place for so long, for all he knew him being on the ship for all that time may have just drew ghosts toward him even when he hadn't summoned them and so he ignored the breathing.

But as the breathing persisted, it began to annoy him so, he grudgingly disposed of his meal (no need to leave evidence that he actually ate lying around) and went investigating.

He found the source of the breathing just around the corner.

Reyna was curled in a ball, trembling and shaking. Her face was sheet white, even tinged slightly green and her hair was messed up like she'd ran her hand through it a lot.

"Reyna!" Nico yelled, trying to snap her out of it. When it didn't work he knew he needed a way of shocking her. The only way to do that quickly was to slap her...

Being sure to remove his skull ring first so he didn't knock her out and make things worse, he slapped her across the face.

Reyna's trembling subsided, her breathing calmed a little and her eyes refocused. "Ow," she said, trying to hide her embarrassment of Nico seeing her in such a fragile state. She was a child of Bellona. Nobody could every see her in such a way.

"You were having a panic attack," Nico informed her. She nodded. Reyna was used to having panic attacks; since she'd been separated from her sister all those years ago, things had been tough and the road to New Rome hadn't been good for her sanity. "Do you get them a lot?" Nico asked. She nodded again.

"I've got them ever since I was separated from my sister." Nico nodded this time. "How did you know how to snap me out of it?" she paused and then added, "Why did you help me?"

Nic considered lying and telling her that he didn't know he should hit her, he just thought he'd see if it'd do anything, but if they were to travel to camp half blood together with the Athena Parthenos, they should probably know a little about each other. "I used to get them too... after Bianca died... I helped you because... I don't think anyone should be alone through that..." his eyes turned distant as if he was remembering something awful.

Reyna gave a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said. She lifted her hand to pat Nico's shoulder but decided better of it.

Nico shrugged and looked down at his feet in response to being thanked. He then put his ring back on his finger and was about to walk away when Reyna pushed him against the wall with her dagger against his throat. He could have easily gotten away - it wasn't that Reyna wasn't a good fighter; just that he was better- but she still looked slightly green so he chose to stay still. "If you breathe even one word about this to anyone..." she left the threat hanging in the air around them.

Nico pushed her away from him and nodded. "I could say the same to you," he told her sinisterly. They both nodded in mutual understanding before walking their separate ways.

By the time everyone was awake and eating breakfast, Nico had reclaimed his dark corner in the dining hall and Reyna was eating quietly, no sign that she'd ever had a panic attack; she looked as collected and ready for battle as she usually did, no one suspected anything.

"Nico aren't you going to eat something?" Jason asked.

"I ate those pancakes yesterday didn't I" he mumbled, still feeling bitter about how he hadn't had the chance to finish his breakfast when he was alone.

"That was yesterday," Hazel complained.

Nico sighed and grabbed a grape from the fruit bowl and made a show of chewing and swallowing it before returning to his corner.

Leo chuckled at Nico. This was the first acknowledgment he'd given anyone other than Calypso since she'd first set foot on board the ship. Annabeth commented on that which made Leo turn bright red and his hair burst into flames which made Frank instinctively jump and the rest burst into laughter. It marked the beginning of another happy day, the events of the early morning behind them and a celebration filled day ahead of them.

PercabethVampireWizard: long reviews always make my day, I'm really glad you like it :) Thanks for pointing those mistakes out, I went and changed the Can- Cat mistake... that made me laugh... I double checked this chapter... hope I didn't miss anything!

Guest: glad you like it, thanks for reviewing :)

Guest: You ask for Reyna, I give you Reyna... I hope I got her character at least a little right. I get that she probably doesn't have panic attacks but I tried to make it clear that she usually hides them from people. We never get a Reyna POV in the books so we never know... That was my line of thought with Nico and the eating too.

Ana-DaughterofHades: I try my best :D thanks for the review

Yeah I've ran out of christmassy intensives for reviews... but reviews would be nice *puppy dog eyes*

see ya's tomorrow x