Nico woke up in the middle of the night to the cat at the foot of his bed hissing like a demon.
"What the hell?" Nico mumbled shifting slightly to peak at the cat, he didn't want to move, he was still half asleep. Why did he have to be such a heavy sleeper, all the other demigods he knew woke up fully at the first sign of danger (Except the Hypnos kids of course) but not Nico. He had already registered that the cat was hissing, there was probably danger, but he was still too asleep to do more than contemplate the idea idle in the back of his mind.
"Go back to sleep." Nico jerked his elbow ramming back against the source of the voice. He heard an oof and a sharp pain sliced across his side as whatever, whoever, it was slid back. The pain woke Nico up fully, he rolled out of bed away from the person leaping to his feet while turning to see who it was with a snarl. Jeff was on his feet already lunging across the bed at Nico with a knife in hand.
Nico grabbed Jeff's extended arm and twisted the wrist harshly, he heard Jeff yelp but he didn't care. Nico was not a morning person, he hated being woken up, Hated it! Go back to sleep? Fuck that, like Nico would be able to sleep for the rest of the night now, and he was still so tired! He jerked Jeff across the bed, letting go of his arm so Jeff could crash to the floor without breaking it. Jeff was up again in a second slashing at Nico, Nico couldn't help but think Jeff was clumsy. Against an untrained mortal his moves might work, but against a trained demigod? Nico let out a chillingly dark chuckle as he easily slipped out of Jeff's reach.
"Honestly, Jeff, is that the best you can do?" Nico was not going to be nice to anyone who woke him up at an ungodly hour, like whatever time this was. He felt like he had only been asleep for minutes. "You're less of a challenge when I'm half asleep, than E.J. was when I was wide awake." Jeff snarled and attacked again, his movements were quicker now and ferocious but they were still poorly timed and ill thought out.
"Do you always attack people while they're asleep? I guess you must have to, you couldn't catch them while they were awake." Jeff spluttered furiously. Nico could feel warmth dripping down his side and knew he must be caught, but he was too full of adrenalin to notice the pain. While Nico was distracted by that realization Jeff barged in, Nico moving a moment too late and earning himself a long shallow cut on his shoulder.
"Ha, who can't catch you now!?" Jeff snarled triumphantly, seconds before the skeletal cat leapt onto him clawing at his face. Jeff gave a shriek and Masky and Hoody came rushing in. Jeff ripped the cat off of him and threw it against the wall, where it's bones scattered apart. This time it was Nico's time to yell and lunge at Jeff, but Hoody had grabbed him and pulled him back, Masky had a hold on Jeff.
Nico fell still almost immediately recognizing that the fight was over, but Jeff kept struggling until Masky got him in a chokehold. Hoody let go of Nico slowly and carefully, then went to help Masky keep hold of Jeff.
"What did Slender say about attacking Nico?!" Masky was yelling at Jeff.
"He said to wait till tomorrow, but technically it is tomorrow!" Jeff was trying to yell but the lack of air allowed through the choke hold made it come out as a wheeze. "It's one am, I gave him a whole extra hour!"
"I don't think Sir will see it the same way you do somehow, now get out!" Masky said shoving Jeff towards the door. "Go find someone else to kill while you can, because I have a feeling you're going to be grounded for a long time when we tell Slenderman about this in the morning." Jeff growled and stalked out of the room. Once he was gone Nico noticed that Jeff had managed to open the door without knocking over the stack of books he had put in front of it, he must have moved really slowly or something. Nico would have to get a bell.
"S-sorry about your c-cat." Hoody said softly to Nico as he groaned and rubbed his face.
"It's okay hang on a moment." Nico said walking over to the pile of cat bones across the room. Reaching out his hand he felt the residue of the soul in the bones mixed with the part of his own power that had strengthened it, and allowed it to manifest fully. Sighing Nico poured a bit more of the small amount of power he had managed to regain into the cats bones, watching as they quickly rearranged themselves into the cat laying on it's side. It got up quickly making a noise that was half way between an angry growl and a disgruntled mew before it began to make motions like it was cleaning itself, even though it didn't have a tongue.
"See, no harm done." Nico said yawning and running his hands back through his hair. "Except that I said some pretty rude things to Jeff, do I have to apologize? He's the one who woke me up, I hate getting woken up, particularly by people trying to kiiill me." He had yawned widely on the word Kill.
"I don't think so." Masky said laughing. "Jeff's almost definitely heard worse. I'm going to go follow him to make sure he leaves. Once he's gone you'll be safe to go back to sleep if you can." Nico nodded and Masky left the room, Hoody stayed kneeling down to pet the cat. It stared at him hard for a moment affronted, then seemed to decide he couldn't be bothered to move away and let Hoody pet it, Hoody chuckled. Nico sat down on the edge of his bed watching Hoody.
"I suppose I should give the cat a name since it can't tell me it's old one, and I seem to have decided I'm keeping it. Any ideas?" Nico asked Hoody, Hoody shrugged his expression mildly panicked at being asked. "It's okay." Nico said quickly. "Ummm, what do you think of Ira? I think I remember it meaning vigilant or something and it woke me up when Jeff came in." Hoody nodded with a small smile.
"Th-that's a pretty name." He agreed easily.
"Alright Ira it is." Nico said smiling at the cat who stared back at him blankly.
"Ira is what?" Masky asked walking back into the room. "Jeff has left the property by the way."
"Ira is the cat's new name." Nico answered. "Thanks."
"Huh that's a nice name." Masky said. "I'm going to go back to bed again now." He turned and left and after running his hand over Ira's spine one more time, Hoody got up and followed. Nico got up and followed Hoody to the door closing it and locking it after him, before going back to the bed and flopping down on his stomach. The cat lept up on the bed with him and curled up in the middle of his lower back, Nico didn't bother moving it.
He hugged a pillow, pulling it under him and burying his face in it with a long sigh. He hadn't thought he would be able to sleep again, but the reassuring weight of the cat on him, even without the warmth of life, was comforting and he felt himself relaxing. He hummed to himself softly, it was a lullaby in Italian that he couldn't remember where he knew it from, so he supposed it must be something his mother had sung to him as a child. Whatever it was it made him feel sane and he quickly fell back to sleep.
"Hey Masky hey Masky heyMaskyheyMaskyheyMasky." Nico could already hear Toby's voice drifting out the kitchen door as he walked through the dining room to enter, well it seemed like Toby was feeling better. When Nico got in the kitchen he caught sight of Masky sitting at the island with a cup of coffee and Toby poking his arm repeatedly saying 'hey Masky' again with each poke.
"I swear to God Toby, if you do that one more time I will dump this coffee over your head and just make myself a new cup." Masky said exasperatedly.
"Go ahead I won't feel it." Toby pointed out laughing. Masky sighed and passed his coffee to the hand that was not constantly being jolted my Toby's pokes in order to take a sip. Hoody noticed Nico's arrival and waved to him pointing questioningly to the coffee he was making. Nico shook his head, he had never really liked coffee, it was too bitter for his liking, Hoody shrugged and went back to pouring and fixing his own cup.
"Honestly, Toby, what do you even want!?" Masky asked putting his coffee down on the table harder than he needed to, sloshing a little over the sides.
"Why cant I have coffee too?" Toby asked pouting, the hole in his cheek ruining the effect.
"Because you have enough energy to last a lifetime without any caffeine or sugar! Just get yourself some orange juice or something! Get some for Nico to since it doesn't look like he's having coffee either, at least this time you won't be the only one besides Sally not drinking it." Toby kept pouting, but he only poked Masky once more before going to do what he suggested.
"If I can't have Coffee can we at least have waffles for breakfast." Toby asked sliding a glass of orange juice over to Nico who sat down on a stool next to Masky, Toby didn't sit down and stood near the island instead.
"You always want waffles, Toby." Masky said in a kind of patient exasperation that made Nico smile into his orange juice.
"Fine pancakes then." Toby said stubbornly.
"No you drown them in syrup and that stuff is all sugar. Didn't I just finish saying you didn't need any sugar?" Nico felt a small pang, Percy did the same thing with his pancakes, he could see Percy and Annabeth having an argument just like this. He was distracted by his thoughts when Toby put down his juice suddenly so he could twitch violently without spilling it.
"I know I don't need it, but I want it." Toby wined pouting .
"Nico do you l-like pancakes?" Hoody asked Nico. Nico jolted slightly at being brought into the conversation but nodded, it had been a while since he had had pancakes and he did like them.
"F-fine, I'll make us all p-pancakes Toby, j-just leave Masky alone. It's too early f-for this." Hoody started getting out ingredients for pancakes and Toby grinned.
"Okay!" he said sliding onto one of the last two empty bar stools by the island. His leg quickly began shaking violently and he leaned back away from the table to keep his own shaking from vibrating the table.
"How do you always have so much energy?" Nico said leaning his head against the cool counter. His head was foggy and sore, so the coolness of the table felt great. He wished he had been able to sleep longer, but when he had woken up he had felt like he'd been awake for hours and he knew there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep no matter how hard he had tried. Besides the sun was up, not high, it was probably around six, but up enough to shine obnoxiously through his window.
"Don't know!" Toby said in a sing-song voice. "Just -heh –do!" he made a noise as he gave a shudder. "By the way, will you want to join us in practicing fighting later? We've never practiced with anyone who fights with a sword before, I wanna try fighting you again when I'm not actually trying to kill you." Toby laughed and Nico gave a small smile.
"I guess I might as well, aside from yesterday I haven't practiced against anyone with axes. Plenty of knifes, swords and spears, but no axes. I'm sure it will be interesting." Nico was starting to wake up a little bit and the smell of pancakes frying was helping a lot, he was hungry. Masky got up and took plates out of a cupboard, putting them next to Hoody so he could put the pancakes on them when they were done. He took down a cutting board and a knife from the rack above the island, got some fruit out of the fridge and started cutting it up to put on the pancakes, Nico thought about offering to help but Toby was still chattering at him.
"I wonder if any tricks will be compatible, I mean there are techniques to fighting with any weapon right? I wonder if I'd be able to take some of the ones you use with your sword or if you could take any of the ones I use with my axes."
"I don't know." Nico said thinking about it. "It's easier to translate techniques between more similar weapons like knives and swords. What sort of weapons do you two use?" Nico asked turning to Hoody and Masky.
"We don't fight much but we use knives and guns when we have to." Masky said answering for both of them as Nico had expected he would. "I usually use knives because they're quieter, Hoody prefers guns because you don't have to be so close... you don't see as much." Both Hoody and Nico grimaced slightly, he could understand that, there were certainly some deaths he would have rather been far away from, and that was with monsters. It would be even worse with humans.
"Pffff." Sounded Toby from next to Nico reaching across to steal half a strawberry from the cutting board and nearly getting one of his fingers sliced off in the process. "I'll never understand that, I mean I'm not like 'the closer the better' like Jeff but why does it matter how far away we are? We're still the ones that kill them." Hoody and Masky shrugged, Nico didn't know how to react, so he didn't react, keeping his face blank and his body language unreadable.
"How many pancakes do you want Nico?" Masky asked changing the subject.
'Three?" Nico said shrugging, normally he would only have two but he was hungry this morning.
"Okay." Hoody answered flipping the pancakes that were in the pan onto a plate and pouring some fresh batter into the pan. Masky took the plate and slid it across to Nico. Toby jumped up from his chair and pulled a bottle of syrup from a cupboard on the opposite side of the room from the one that held plates.
Masky got his pancakes next, three of them like Nico, he half expected Toby to complain that Masky got his first but Toby didn't seem to mind. He was swinging his legs like a three year old now and it seemed to keep the shaking at bay so he could lean against the counter now with minimal difficulties. When Hoody finally passed Toby a plate there were at least six pancakes on it, the food in Nico's mouth kept it from dropping open. Toby frowned at them and opened his mouth to say something but Masky interrupted him.
"We know you can eat more than six but six is more than enough, let Hoody eat." Toby frowned at Masky, but didn't argue, grabbing the syrup bottle and beginning to pour more syrup than seemed at all necessary over his pancakes.
"Honestly Toby, that is too much sugar!" Masky snapped after a moment "they're swimming in syrup they'll get all soggy!"
"Pff I like swimming and so do my pancakes!" Toby laughed back. "Hey we should go swimming later! It looks like it's going to be a warm day and there's not that much of summer left, we should take advantage of it!" Nico felt a small twist in his stomach, he could picture Annabeth and Percy having the same argument that Masky and Toby had just had. He looked away, shoving another bite of pancake into his mouth and chewing slowly as Toby began to gulp down his overly sweet pancakes.
Despite the different times they had gotten their food and how much more Toby had to eat than the rest of them, they all finished at about the same time. Hoody was the last to finish, Nico and Masky stayed sitting with him as he finished up, but Toby jumped up and bolted off as soon as he was done. Masky scowled after him, gathering up Toby's plate as well as his own and crossing to the sink, Nico took his own and Hoody's once he was done and helped Masky with dishes.
"Where did Toby go?" Nico asked curiously
"Probably to gather up all the weapons we'll need and find a good practice spot. He'll want to get started as soon as we leave the house so make sure you don't go until you're ready. We're going to sit for a moment because now that I've eaten I need to take my pill." Nico nodded after he finished drying the last plate and had put it away he refilled his glass with orange juice, then went back to his seat next to Masky who was making a face having just swallowed the pill and Hoody who was patting Masky on the back.
Nico drank his glass of orange juice a lot more quickly this time, Hoody sipped a glass of water and Masky chugged a glass of water to force the pill (that apparently had got stuck in his throat) down. Once all three of them were done their drinks they went out the back door of the house which was closer. Sure enough Toby was there dancing with impatience. As soon as he saw them he grabbed Nico and Masky by the arm and dragged them away leaving Hoody to jog behind them into what promised to be an action packed day.