Loved For Once

by nico-mio-angelo

Nico sat in his room hiding under his covers in complete darkness, wishing he didn't exist and attempting to pretend Annabeth wasn't swaying with Percy to the music in the room next door. But it was impossible. He felt numbed by his emotions, it was as if son of Poseidon himself sent tidal wave after tidal wave of earth shattering sadness onto him.

6. Chapter 6

Lysander awoke with a groan, his body ached all over. Suddenly he bolted up and looked around him. He had just remembered being attacked by a huge fire breathing half horse. Next to him, Nico was lying face down on the ground. "Nico!" He shouted, scurrying beside the still figure. Gently he turned Nico over, testing for a pulse. He was relieved to find Nico had one. Sighing with relief he looked around, this was definitely not the same place they had fought the monster horses. In fact if his instincts were correct, they seemed to be far, far away from there. Nico must have shadow traveled. Nico's voice echoed in his mind, "I don't know if I have the strength to do that!". Crap! Nico must have used all of his energy to get himself and Lysander away from the attacking monsters, and passed out from the exertion. Lysander was at a loss, they were in the middle of nowhere, no civilization in sight, no food or water in sight and definitely no hospital in sight.

He did the best he could, Lysander had a few things in his pocket, an army knife and an empty 1 liter zip-lock bag. He propped Nico up against a tree, hidden from sight by a few bushes and left to take a look around. He didn't dare go too far, so he stayed within a twenty meter radius from where he had left Nico. He found a tiny stream, from which he took generous gulps of water and filled the zip-lock bag to bring to Nico. Sadly he found no kinds of nourishment, something his stomach whined about loudly. He trooped back to Nico, holding the bag to the boy's lips, force feeding him the stream water. But still Nico lied limp. "Come on, Nico!" he muttered trying to shake the boy awake. But to no avail. The son of Hades looked as still as death itself, with only a quiet heartbeat to prove Lysander otherwise.

Hours past and Lysander contented himself with taking short naps, concealed by bushes and trees, with daylight slowly fading into darkness. Lysander shivered and huddled next to Nico for warmth. Nico's forehead felt like ice upon inspection and Lysander unzipped his hoodie and threw it over the two of them, desperately hoping Nico would awake in the morning.