"Oh yeah, forgot about that whole Hades thing," Leo responded, but he didn't seem to be in the mood for talking very much. "How about yours? Your mortal parent, I mean," he asked without thinking, just to keep the conversation alive. "If you want to talk about it, of course…"

Nico frowned, contemplating how to respond. Maybe this was a doomed conversation from the start, but they were too deep into this discussion to change topics at this point. "I didn't really know my mom—she died in a fire, and I was too young to remember it. My sister—uh, not Hazel…" he silently cursed himself for mentioning Bianca, "she remembered our mom. Maria... Maria di Angelo was her name."

Leo flinched at the 'died in a fire' part, but quickly regained his composure. "Sister? I thought Hazel was your only sister," he commented, but his eyes widened as Nico let out a muffled whimper, like he was trying not to cry. "Whoa, dude, what's up?"

"I-I'm fine," Nico answered quickly, but Leo didn't need to be a son of the death god to know that something had happened to the kid's sister. "I don't normally bring her up. Sorry." He really didn't want to be seen crying, especially not by Leo, but he couldn't stop.

"Hey." Leo awkwardly put a hand on his shoulder, trying for a smile. "Ah, don't worry… insert some other comforting words here… Uh, I mean, do you want to talk about it?" He stumbled over his words, not really sure how to go about this whole 'comforting people' thing.

"I…" He was going to say that no, he didn't want to talk about it, but he couldn't force the words from his lips. "I don't know, Leo. I-I miss her."

"Well," Leo started, "of course you do. She was your sister, right?" He tried to think. What would Piper or Jason say? They always succeeded at making him feel better. "I… I learned after my quest with Sir Lightning and Little Miss Charmspeak that if you keep everything from your friends, it doesn't make things any less painful. And… we're friends, right? So maybe if you told me about yourself… I dunno. Maybe you'd feel better?"

"I'm not much of a talker," Nico muttered, "but… okay." The single word surprised both of them, and even though nothing had been said yet, a massive amount of tension left the atmosphere. "I'll start off with my mom, then. Bianca—my sister," his voice came out shaky, but he swallowed and continued. "My sister never really talked to me about her, but I did some research on my own a while back."

Leo listened intently, and Nico must have had a pretty compelling voice, because despite his ADHD, he felt himself clinging to every word.

"There was some trouble in Olympus… World War 2, and all." The mechanic's eyes widened for a split second, forgetting that Nico was from the past, then he continued to listen. "My dad pleaded with my mom to send us somewhere so we wouldn't be in any trouble, but she didn't want to leave us alone. So Zeus blew up the hotel we were in, trying to kill me and my sister…" He sighed. "But my dad saved us and put us in the Lotus Hotel and Casino."

"Hotel and casino? Sounds neat."

"Yeah, no. It seems like a paradise at first, but time passes faster in there so a few months could be years in the real world, and you wouldn't know." He shivered, either because he was cold or he was frightened by the realization of how old he was. Probably both. "Anyway, just a few years back, a lawyer who we didn't know came and took us out, and put us in a boarding school. Then Percy and Annabeth…" He hesitated, and looked to the ground sadly, remembering the day they were rescued. "…came and brought us to Camp Half-Blood."

"Wow, so you've known them longer than any of us, huh?" Leo raised a brow, sounding genuinely interested in learning in the story. "Bet they were pretty epic about it, weren't they?"

"Yeah, and uh… sure, I guess," he answered with a slight smile. "B-Bianca…" A breath hitched in his throat. He wasn't sure he could say much more without turning into a mess, but he just sighed and kept on talking. "She went on a quest to save Artemis almost as soon as we got to Camp." He winced, as if the memory was painful. "I made Percy p-promise… to protect her."

Leo almost gasped. Percy failed? No, no, that was wrong. Percy was the most powerful, capable demigod out there. There was no way he'd break a promise—especially not one that serious. But still, Leo kept on listening, waiting like a little kid hearing a bedtime story.

"They were in Hephaestus' junkyard," he said, and Leo furrowed his brow.

"My dad's got a junkyard?" He remembered while he was still on the streets, he'd seen a few junkyards. They were always full of such interesting things, Leo was blown away by the idea that people could've wanted to throw any of it out. "That place has got to have some serious inventions."

Nico, although relieved that Leo was making jokes again, couldn't help but scowl. "Yeah, but if you ever go there, don't take anything. I swear, Leo, if anyone would be stupid and reckless enough to steal from Hephaestus' junkyard, it would be none other than his own son."

"Stupid, maybe. Reckless, for sure." He shrugged playfully, before nudging him in the arm. "Continue with the story. I wanna know what happens," he whined. Now Nico really wanted to give him a hug, because he sounded like a five year-old.

"Um… Confession, I used to be a total idiot. Even more so than you." Nico almost smiled, but he was anticipating the part of the tale that came after this, and he frowned again. "I played a game called Mythomagic, about Greek mythology."

"Oh man, you nerd!" Leo laughed out loud, shaking his head. "I've seen those cards. Do you really think the full strength of the immortals can be measured in attack power and health points?"

"No! Well, maybe I did… that was when I was ten!" He huffed, crossing his arms. "Don't make fun of me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rather thick looking deck of cards. "I kept some of them. And these are just the ones I didn't burn or throw away," he explained, looking through the various characters and smiling. "Too rare to let go of, you know? And Percy… he told me it's alright to be a kid sometimes."

Leo snickered as he took the cards and looked through them. "Good thing it's okay to be a kid sometimes, because I'm pretty sure that's all I live by."