It turned out talking to Slenderman would have to wait until dinner because they couldn't find him anywhere. Even after splitting up and asking all the other creepypastas no one knew where he was, no one had seen him more recently than Nico had. Besides it was Masky, Hoodie and Toby's turn to make dinner for the group. Nico agreed to help. Even though he didn't know much about cooking he could with far less worry of him cutting off his fingers by accident then Toby.
Nico was having trouble focusing on what was going on around him. He was too busy trying to delve deeper into the off feeling that had started a few days before. If he had grabbed ahold of it when it had first appeared he might have been able to tell more, but now it had faded to an odd sort of hum. It was as if someone had put a wall between the feeling and him so the best he could do was press against the wall where the humming was strongest. It made him shift uncomfortably, he couldn't tell if it felt bad or just wrong. He gritted his teeth letting out an annoyed hiss.
He didn't eat much that night either, Slenderman was there, Masky and Hoody had sat on either side of him. Even though Nico couldn't hear what they were saying. But he could tell by the faces that they were making that they were having a internal conversation. He would much rather have paid attention to that, but Toby seemed to have made it his job to make sure Nico ate, after a while Nico gave in.
"Slenderman has a job for me and Hoodie tonight, but we can leave tomorrow afternoon." Masky told Nico and toby after dinner. He looked angry, there was always a sort of coldness about him, but now nothing but the coldness was showing.
"Do you want my help?" Toby offered looking a little worried when Masky broke into a coughing fit. Hoodie stepped forward putting an arm around Masky's waist to help support him. Where had that come from? Masky had seemed fine earlier, was he sick?
"Too late, I've already skipped my meds, so me and Hoodie need to get going now." Masky said, he was starting to shake a little. Hoodie pulled him away quickly. Nico gave Toby a questioning look.
"Masky's meds keep his personality disorder under control." Toby explained to Nico softly.
"If he doesn't take them he can get really violent. Hoodie's basically the only person he won't try to hurt so Hoodie needs to go with him to look after him."
Nico nodded, he didn't want to know more about whatever job Slenderman had for them if it required violence. But still, the fact that Hoodie was the only person Masky wouldn't hurt was sort of sweet.
"Well if we're leaving tomorrow I should go back to camp and get my stuff tonight." Nico said half to himself, running his hands back through his hair. He wasn't looking forward to this but it needed to be done, he would just have to hope no one noticed him. "Is it dark yet?"
"Almost." Toby said eyeing Nico with concern. "Are you going to be okay going back there? I thought you needed to run away from it."
"I should be fine, I'm very good at hiding when I want to be, I'll just make sure no one sees me." Toby didn't look comforted.
"I'll be fine don't worry about it." Nico assured, glancing out the window. The sun was setting the shadows were dark. Now would be the best time.
"I'll be back soon." Nico said taking Toby's hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze before heading outside heading to the tree line, walking into and through their shadows.
It was almost completely dark in the Hades cabin, just barely enough light coming through the window to see. Nico wouldn't turn on a light, as long as the lights were off the light from outside would reflect on the window and no one would be able to see in.
He could see some stranglers wandering back to their cabins, including one blond girl he thought might be Annabeth. He turned away quickly, now was not the time to worry about them he had to pack. He hadn't been fully unpacked anyway, he hoped it wouldn't take long.
Padding over to the bunk he had been using he reached under and pulled out his backpack, laying it on the bed softly. He paused for a moment to listen for his own breathing, it's so quiet that he can hardly ever hear it. Is there anyway he isn't comparable to the dead?
Shaking that off he went to the trunk at the foot of the bunk and opens it, wincing when it squeaks a little. Not enough for anyone else to hear hopefully. There are two more pairs of pants, and four shirts in it. He took them out and added them to his bag along with the toothbrush and few other trinkets that had been sitting on top of the chest.
He didn't care if anyone noticed he had been there after he was gone so he didn't bother being discreet. He was zipping up his backpack again before he remembered something, his mythomagic cards. He chewed his lip softly, it was for kids really but Toby might like it. After all that videogame they had played with fairly childish, maybe it would be fun to teach him. Hesitantly Nico got down and reached under the bed again, far back where he had pushed them when…when.
Nico pulled out the box the cards were in and opened it staring at the cards and the figure of Hades. The figure that Bianca had died for, what had he been thinking? No. He would not play this again. Ever again. What had come over him?
He had been so caught up in finding somewhere where he felt like people accepted him that he had forgotten. Reaching into the box he picked up the figure, glaring at the effigy of his father he sighed. He had realized a while ago that there was no one to blame, really. Even though he still blamed himself for not being able to stop her from leaving. But then, why would anyone want to stay with him? She would have left with the hunters even if she hadn't left on the quest.
He dropped the figure back in the box and closed it shoving it in the bottom of his bag. He didn't want to play, he didn't even want to look at the cards, but he couldn't leave them. Grabbing his bag he slung it over his shoulder. He looked around the cabin one more time thinking that at least now if any other children of Hades were found, they would have somewhere to stay. The sun had completely set now and everything was dark so he didn't even have to find a shadow to travel back to the creepypasta house.
He came out in the room he had been given startling Ira who's yowl in turn made Nico jump; he didn't want to talk to anyone. He dumped his bag on the foot of the bed, if they were leaving tomorrow there was no point in unpacking. He left the lights off, opened the curtains and sat on the edge of the bed watching silently as the moon rose over the tree line. Pulling his knees up to his chest he watched a small dark shape dart across the yard. Sally he was fairly sure, he would know if tomorrow there was fresh blood on her dress. A Taller shape followed her, Slenderman? No definitely L.J.. Good. He would keep Sally safe wherever they were going.
Nico sighed again and buried his head in his arms, was it alright for him to stay here? They seemed to accept him more than anyone else had yet, but he wouldn't hurt people the way they did, would they reject him for that? Should he be rejecting them for it before they could reject him? Leaving before having to wouldn't hurt anymore. Not before he found out about whether this Alex person had come back from the dead, that was for certain.
Nico fell sideways on the bed stretching out on his side still facing the window. The moon was halfway across the sky and he knew there was no way he would sleep tonight. Not that it mattered, Nico rarely slept well so he had gotten used to functioning without it. He would be fine tomorrow, he had slept well the night before with toby there after all. Nico was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't hear the door open or close, but he did feel the shift in weight on the bed as someone crawled on. He tensed and prepared for a fight.
"That had better be Toby or there will be blood spilled tonight." Nico said through his teeth without turning, he heard a familiar laugh and relaxed slightly.
"Don't worry it's me, you forgot to lock your door." Toby said. Nico felt another shift as Toby settled down, Nico turned to face him.
"Can't sleep?" Nico asked softly. It didn't feel right to disturb the quiet of the night, even though he felt a soul a few miles away leave it's body screaming, he shivered.
"Do you want help or just company?" Nico asked when Toby nodded.
"Just company, if I don't sleep tonight I might be able to sleep through part of the car ride tomorrow and that'll make it easier." Toby said, speaking quietly as well.
"I can go away again though if you want to sleep." He added quickly. Nico shook his head.
"No I can't sleep either it's okay." Nico was glad for the distraction from his thoughts and the feeling of people dying.
"Why are you so afraid of the car?" Toby twitched harder than usual, Nico winced at the cracking sound his neck made, that could not be good.
"Cars crash." Toby hissed through his teeth. Nico moved a little closer, he didn't know why but he knew that he had upset Toby.
"I'm sorry." Nico apologized softly frowning, worried. Toby shook his head and took a deep breath closing his eyes for a moment before looking at Nico.
"How did your sister die?" Nico was taken aback by the question.
"She was sent on a quest along with four other demigods, as part of the quest they had to pass through this, sort of junkyard of the gods. It would have gone fine if none of them had taken anything, but I had been angry at her for leaving me. So she tried to take something to make it up to me."
"Doing that awakened the guardian of the place and she sacrificed herself to save the other four. She thought it was her fault, so she had to, but it was my fault. I was just too young to understand, but if I had just let her go she wouldn't have felt like she had to take something for me."
Toby reached out and touched the dampness on Nico's cheek. It was still almost impossible for him to talk about Bianca without crying. Nico wiped away the tears quickly, he didn't want to cry, he had cried about it enough.
"Mine died in a car crash, I was in the car with her but she was the one who died. I wish it had been me, I had been protecting her for as long as I could remember, but when it really mattered I couldn't do anything." Toby said wrapping his arms comfortingly around Nico who snuggled closer. So that's why Toby was afraid of cars, it was a good reason. He didn't bother telling Toby it wasn't his fault and Toby didn't say anything either. Neither of them were ready to be comforted yet.
The rest of the night passed in a combination of small talk and silence, they got up as soon as grey light of dawn was starting to show in the sky. They went downstairs still in pajamas, just in time to see Hoodie staggering in supporting a half-conscious Masky, both of them soaking from the rain that had come through the night. It didn't look like either of them were hurt worse than the bloody nose Masky was sporting but Nico was still worried.
"Do you need help Hoodie?" Nico asked but Hoodie shook his head quickly and waved them on half leading half dragging Masky towards the stairs to their room. Toby grabbed Nico's hand and dragged him on before he could say anything else.
"Masky gets really out of it when he's off his meds, it's best not to distract him. Don't worry. Hoodie will make sure Masky takes his pills. They'll get some sleep and Masky will be himself again before it's time for us to leave. Come on since we're the first up we should go check on what's happening with breakfast." Toby suggested. Nico didn't object so Toby led the way to the kitchen. When they got there they found L.J. already at work and Sally asleep in on of the chairs her head down on the counter.
"Hey L.J. whatcha making?" Toby asked.
"Chocolate chip pancakes!" L.J. said excitedly grinning and waving the beater he had been using to stir the batter. "The rainbowy kind!" He laughed and Toby did too.
"Awesome but you know you should make something else too, E.J. and Jeff hate sweets in the morning."
"I do too, honestly." Nico said with a shrug, E.J. grimaced at them.
"Why don't you two deal with that? Most of us like chocolate chip pancakes."
"Sure, bacon and eggs are easy enough to make and you know you'll want some too." Toby said with a shrug going over to the fridge and taking out a carton of eggs and a couple of packages of bacon. He pushed the carton of eggs at Nico along with a bowl.
"We'll just do scrambled since that's easier in bulk." Nico nodded, took the bowl and started to crack the eggs into it as Toby found a pan and laid the bacon out on it.
"L.J. you're close to it, turn on the oven, kay?"
"It's already on to keep the pancakes warm." L.J. answered happily pouring some batter into the pan.
"Good, then move out of the way so I can put this pan in." Toby said poking L.J. with the corner of the pan.
L.J. gave an indignant face, but moved out of the way so Toby could open the oven and slide the pan in. Without an oven mitt Nico couldn't help but notice. Nico assumed this large of a group would eat an entire carton of eggs, once they were all cracked in the bowl he retrieved a fork from the drawer. He remembered them being mixed with the broken yokes.
Nico didn't notice when Hoodie came down because of how quiet he was. He did notice when Hoodie came fully into the kitchen grabbing the number of plates needed to set the table. Nico got the cutlery leaving Toby to cook the eggs, it wasn't long after he table was set that food came out, the eggs first and the bacon last. Immediately Hoodie filled to plates and left again, so he and Masky would be eating in their room.
"Sally." Toby said poking her gently.
"Hmmm...?" She sounded sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
"Breakfast is ready Sal, why don't you go wake everyone up? You can go have a nap as soon as it's over, okay?"
"Don't wanna nap." Sally said yawning widely.
"Okay then, you don't have to have one." Toby said grinning, Nico smiled too. He could tell that before breakfast was over Sally would be asleep again and the someone would just have to carry her up to bed.
"I'll come with you to wake everyone up." L.J. said holding out his clawed hand to Sally.
"Come on it'll be fun!" Sally took his hand still smiling sleepily. They left returning a few minutes later followed closely by the yawning creepypastas.
Nico smiled and took his place next to Toby, BEN sat on his other side and started helping himself to pancakes. Just as Toby had predicted both Jeff and E.J. made faces when they saw the pancakes and reached for the nearest plates of eggs or bacon. Nico took the plate of bacon nearest to him helped himself to a few strips before passing it to Jeff who mumbled a thanks.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, no one there seemed to be a morning person so no one seemed to be in the mood for talking. As Nico had predicted Sally had only finished half her pancake before falling asleep at the table, E.J. took her up to bed. The house was fairly quiet even after breakfast finished. Masky, Hoodie, Sally and L.J. had all been out that night and went to bed right afterwards. Jeff said the silence was suffocating and left soon after. BEN disappeared into the computer and E.J. retreated to his infirmary area.
That gave Nico and Toby the house to themselves but neither of them could settle to anything either. They were both over tired and anxious about leaving but neither of them wanted to wake up Masky and Hoody.