Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Nights alone, staring at the metal bed above him. Days watching Percy, wishing for an existence like his. Praying to whatever god ruled Heaven above, sometimes praying to whatever devil ruled Hell below. Anything to get him out of this limbo.
His next life he never saw Will, not even once. It was a short life, a life that ended at age five. Starved to death on the streets, nothing good in the world to save an innocent child. He fell into his bed at the Facility, finally thankful he had no stomach there. He never wanted to be hungry again.
But as the days in the Facility moved on, he found himself missing summer nights and winter mornings, the smell of bonfires and the sounds of the laughter coming from the park. He missed the feeling of grass against his feet and the excitement of catching fireflies. He even missed the smell of gunfire from a battlefield long ago.
Living, it seemed, was always better than limbo. Even without Will. Or, at least, from the Facility it did.
Percy showed up after Nico had been there for a week. The usual shinning green eyes were darkened and his happy attitude wasn't so happy. It had been a hard life, he told Nico. A really hard life. He missed the kids he and Annabeth finally had.
It was his next life, his fourth life, when he finally met Will again. When he finally got into a relationship with him. It started in a small apartment in New York City, a baby born under flickering lights and in a crumbling building. Nico Harmer, underdeveloped and premature. Born with nothing more than a makeshift diaper and a stolen blanket, he slept in his mother's arms in a sort of innocent peace. An innocent peace that only realized that he was warm and he was full, and that was all that mattered.
At four years old he met the boy that lived next door. His name was Will and they were around the same age, and they played together in the halls of the apartment building. Tag, hide and seek, policemen and firefighters. They helped each other learn, helped each other walk and talk. By ten years old they couldn't be separated. A sleepover at someone's apartment each night, phone calls and lunches. A lifelong friend that never knew of the past, that didn't remember a battlefield of the 40's.
By age ten Will was terrified of cannons and hated to learn about World War Two. Nico helped him skip History class and they would sit on the roof of their school, talking about nothing and everything. Bottles of pop and homemade sandwiches, kicking feet over the street forty feet below.
"I don't know why." Will's skin was darker than his last life but his eyes were the same blue. "I have nightmares about cannons. Nothing else, just a cannon. It's scary." Ten years old, scared of everything but wanting to change the world. "And that war we're talking about in history is scary, too."
Nico picked at his sandwich, kept it close to him despite knowing that Will wouldn't take it. "I think it's scary, too. You shouldn't be embarrassed."
"I'm not embarrassed!" Will laughed but it didn't reach his eyes. "I just don't understand."
"It talks about a lot of people dying. It's scary." Nico didn't voice that he regretted the side he fought for. "Maybe it's just the fact that it sounds...it sounds like a painful death."
"Yeah, probably." Will ate his own sandwich. "You mom makes good sandwiches from nothing."
"She toasted the bread and melted the cheese," Nico explained. "It makes the cheese taste real, she said."
"It tastes good." Will complimented. They sat in silence for a minute more before Will spoke up again, his voice curious. "Nico? Do you believe in soulmates? They're kinda gross."
"Your parents are soulmates." Nico smiled. "Remember the stories they told us?"
Will smiled. "Mom said that she writes on her arm so it shows up on dad's, so he doesn't forget how to get to work." He laughed. "She's really smart and he's not. They're opposites."
"They're happy together." Nico, in a childlike state of mind, didn't feel too strongly towards Will but still felt attached to him. "My mom says it all the time. She talks to my dad and goes, 'Hey, Harry, you know Percy and Annabeth next store? Why can't we be happy like them?'. And he says back, 'Because I'm lazy, Carol.'"
Will laughed. "I like your dad."
"Me, too." Nico agreed. "And I like my mom. She makes good food."
Will finished his sandwich and crumbled the wrapper up. "Nico? We're going to be friends forever, right?"
Nico smiled but his heart dropped. "Forever."