Once again, Nico was greeted with the refreshing, cold air of Target. It smelled faintly of fresh coffee and popcorn as he pulled his jacket tighter around him. He walked over to the assembly of carts in the middle. He needed something way bigger than a basket.
Today, his purpose was to find a gift for his favorite godson, Chuck Hedge, and buy whatever party decorations he could find. Little Chuck was turning one today, and as his honorary godfather, he and Clarisse (Chuck's godmother) were in charge of party preparations. And of course, they were going to go all out. Hence, Nico was planning on stuffing the cart with tons of packets of streamers and banners and confetti.
He strolled down slowly, pulling the squeaking cart behind him in one hand. They had agreed that Clarisse and Coach Hedge's wife, Mellie, would be the ones actually decorating the house tomorrow morning. Nico was just supposed to buy the stuff this afternoon.
He'd already paid a rather uncomfortable visit to Party City. Nico had spent two hours in the warm-aired store, picking and choosing over 50 different items. It got especially unpleasant when he was comparing three different types of plastic tablecloths (Would the green and gray patterned one clash with the blue? What about the dark red?) and the two girls standing at the cash register were staring at him. He could feel their gaze even as he walked towards the were considering if they should help the clueless, black-haired young man in the aisle and eventually came up to him.
"Um, excuse me, sir, would you like any help?" the girl asked politely. He got that he probably looked like a moron, standing there for what seemed like ages, but he tried his best to look like he knew what he was doing.
Nico turned, "No, thank you. I'm fine." He was not, however, fine at all. Nico was clearly worried, and decided to go with and assortment of blues, reds, browns, and black utensils, plates, napkins, and cups (as the theme was pirates, but all of the pirate themed stuff was either sold out, or not enough). He should've asked Clarisse to come with him before he left. The girl left, uncertain, but continued to chat with her friend at the cash register. They didn't talk until Nico came up to the front, finished with his shopping.
So here he was, at Target, after an excruciatingly long trip to Party City. He just wanted to get the whole thing over. His feet were swollen and tired, his stomach gurgled for lack of food, and his eyes drooped from exhaustion. He needed a nap. And a snack.
He shoved party decorations mindlessly off the shelf and into his cart. He started the day off more or less excited, but right now, he didn't even care anymore. He already got most of the party materials. This was just the cherry on top. Hopefully Mellie and Clarisse could make something out of them.
Nevertheless, he trudged on to find a gift. The familiar feelings of hesitation and doubt came back just like it did when he was getting his sister's gift. At least this time, he knew where to go.
He finally decided on getting Chuck a long, plastic pirate sword he found in the back despite the fact the the kid was only a year old (He'd grow into it, right?).
Nico was in fact fascinated with the sword. The blade was painted a shiny silver, and the handle felt good and light in his palm. He tossed it experimentally in his hands, feeling the balance.
As a young child, he had been forced to take fencing classes for 4 years because it was his father's attempt to make him socialize. His father didn't fail - that's where Nico met Percy and Annabeth. He also happened to pick up a bunch of other different sword fighting techniques from their teacher, Chiron.
Nico looked around to check if anyone was watching. Surprisingly, not a lot of people go to Target on Thursday afternoons.
With one final toss, Nico caught it with his right hand and fell into the standard sword fighting stance. After a brief second, he started to lash at the air in front of him, as if attacking a real opponent. He parried to the right, jabbed, and parried to the left. With a giant whoosh, Nico slashed from the upper right to the bottom left, and knocked over a bunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle masks off the shelf.
Shoot. Nico looked around frantically. Did anyone hear it fall? He dropped the sword, and quickly started picking the toys up and putting them back on the shelf.
He heard a snicker.
Nico froze. He stepped back and pretended to look like he was choosing one of the TMNT toys, trying not to look too suspicious. He stared at the one with the blue mask, which was more like a ribbon, and vaguely remembered watching the crime-fighting turtles named after artists in the Renaissance.
"My favorite one's Michelangelo." Will said, walking out from behind the aisle and bursted out in laughter.
Nico's head snapped to the voice. "Will!" His face was red with embarrassment (he was also blushing due to the fact that he got Will to laugh). Will's face, however, was red from guffawing. "Will! Oh my goodness. Stop laughing!"
Will couldn't stop though. He was clutching his stomach, his eyes squeezed shut from pure laughter, which was starting to sound like wheezing. He looked like he was going to fall over.
"Will!" He scolded, "Stop it!" But Will's laughter had started to affect Nico. He too had started smiling and chuckling lightly. Will's giggles died down soon, but the giant grin stayed on his face.
"Uhh, how long have you been standing there?" Nico asked.
Will rubbed his neck. "Not that long…" Nico raised his eyebrow. "Fine. I saw your whole sword thing. Which was really cool by the way!" Will looked at him in admiration, giving Nico the chills. "I never knew you knew how to sword fight! It was really awesome!"
"It's just a little something I learned." Nico shrugged it off. His sword-fighting skills were unimportant.
"A little something?" Will looked at Nico incredulously. "That's a huge something! It makes you even cooler!" Will blushed. "I mean not that you weren't cool before. You are cool- I just meant- well- err."
Nico blushed even more with the compliment. "Thanks, Solace. But it's nothing, really. I mean, who in this day and age would use a sword?"
Will shook his head. "Who cares? You can clearly defend yourself if there's a sword-like stick or something around. You mastered the art of sword fighting- well, I mean, it looks like you mastered sword fighting with those skills. Here, I'll show you. Where'd you find that?" Will asked, pointing to the sword.
Nico pointed to the wall behind him with his elbow. "Over there. Wait, are you-"
"Yep," Will said, interrupting his words. He took a sword and turned around."I'm challenging you to a duel."
Nico stared at him. "But you don't know the first thing to fencing, much less skilled sword fighting."
"Exactly." Will looked back at him, challenging him.
Nico's competitive side took over. "Oh, you're so going down, Solace."
In a flash, Will lunged at him. Nico easily deflected it. Will lunged again and again, each attack met with Nico's sword. It was a weird sight to see. A tall, young, blonde Target employee attacking a shorter, paler, black-haired teen. With a sword. He was obviously failing miserably. Nico deflected again bored, and decided to take an offensive move.
He jabbed and lightly slashed Will's arm. "I just cut your arm off."
Will switched his sword to his left hand and looked at his arm with wide eyes. "Hey!" He dropped his arms to his side.
Nico wasn't done. He jabbed Will's left leg. "Don't ever keep your guard down. You're one legged now."
"No fair!" Will playfully pouted and raised his sword and started lunging again. Well, lunging as best he could, hopping on his right leg.
Nico deflected his moves just as easily as before. He jabbed at Will's chest. "I just stabbed your heart." He smirked. "You're dead."
Will fell to the floor on his knees, putting a hand on his chest. "You didn't! You cold-blooded monster!" He started chuckling again.
"WILLIAM SOLACE!"
Both Nico and Will froze.
Will stood up quickly and turned around. "Yes, m'am?" he asked weakly.
"You're on register duty! You cannot just leave me there with a giant line of whiny customers to flirt!" reprimanded the short girl, another Target employee, about Nico and Will's age.
"I- I wasn't flirting!" Will denied, holding up his hands.
The girl seemed livid. "I DON'T care! You left me alone with some very whiny customers!"
Will looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Lou Ellen, I was just helping out Nico here." Will shot a glare at Nico as if to say play along.
Nico, scrambling for words splurted out, "Oh, um yeah, Solace was just helping me see if this sword worked… um well...enough for my godson. Chuck. He's turning one tomorrow."
Lou Ellen's expression changed entirely from angry to super cheery. "Well in that case, carry on. Nice meeting you, Nico." She glared at Will. "Once you're finished though, help me out in the front." She smiled again and left.
Will chuckled nervously. "That was my friend, Lou Ellen. She's in the same grade as us. She tends to be like that."
"Interesting."
"Yeah. I better go now. She'll be even madder- is that a word?" Nico shook his head. "Oh, well, then, she'll be ven more made if I'm not there in five minutes. Are you done shopping yet?"
Nico sighed. "Yes, yes. You can check my stuff out in the front."
Will smiled and Nico's heart skipped a beat. "You know me so well."
They walked to the check-out/register area. Will asked, "Wait, when you were talking about the kid named Chuck earlier, you don't happen to mean baby Chuck, as in Chuck Hedge, were you?"
Nico started unloading his items on the conveyor belt thing and gave Will a questioning look. "Yeah. I'm his godfather. That's why I bought all these party decorations."
Will's eyes brightened even more. "Oh my gosh! Um, that's great! I'm going to his party tomorrow!"
Nico, though happy to see Will tomorrow asked, "Cool. Um, how do you know Chuck, may I ask?"
"Oh! I helped Mellie deliver the baby."
Nico looked shocked. "Oh my gosh, that was you?" Will nodded. "That's amazing! Even more amazing than my mad sword skills!"
It was Will's turn to look embarrassed from the compliment. "Thank you. That'll be $83.42"
Nico slid his credit card and proceeded to gather his bags.
"Thanks. For the sword fight and stuff. I'll see you tomorrow then!" Will said cheerily.
Nico raised his eyebrows with a playful look in his eye. "Yup. Thanks, for the help, Will! See you 'till then!"
I'm very sorry for all grammatical errors you might find in here. Thank you all for all the reviews and favorites and stuff! Please, if you have any suggestions, share them!
-Phantomosolace