p style="margin: 0px 0px 13.3px; font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Nico's eyes fluttered open. Pain pulsated from his shoulder and he felt weak. He also felt a body rising and falling against his. He jerked to the side. It was Lysander, who was curled up in the fetal position, deep asleep under a brown hoodie, which he noticed, was draped over himself as well. Scooting away from Lysander took an outrageous amount of energy, leaving him gasping for breath a few inches from where he had awoken. "Lysander" he croaked, nudging the figure next to him. "Lysander!" He jerked awake. "Nico! How are you feeling?" "Awful." Nico's voice was raspy, "do you have any water?" Lysander scrambled to retrieve the ziplock bag. He could tell Nico was in bad shape and afraid he would spill the entire contents of the bag if he let Nico drink himself, so he lifted the boy up into a halfway upright position against the tree. Holding up Nico's head in one hand and putting the bag to Nico's lips, the boy gulped up an entire liter. Lysander quickly removed his hand from Nico's chin, his face reddening, something he hoped went unbeknownst to Nico. They sat in silence. "You aren't a demigod, are you? Or you would have been able to get through that gate." Nico directed his words at his lap more than at Lysander. Lysander didn't respond immediately. "No, I guess not." Lysander felt ashamed. "Did you ever think you were?" Nico demanded. "Well I didn't lie, it's true that my dad is not a god. He's the most awful kind of human I know. And my mom, she died a couple years ago. I was eight." Lysander's voice was pained. "I thought just maybe, maybe she was a goddess, but I was kidding myself to think it was true, that I could be special." remorse and bitterness took over Lysander. "Well, you're mortal and you can see through the mist, that's pretty rare." Nico's head was bobbing from the effort of talking. Despite feeling ashamed for misleading Nico, he felt a swoop in his stomach at the compliment. "Then why did you run away?" Lysander didn't want to tell Nico, but he figured he owed him the truth. "My dad, he's…. We don't get along, since my mom died, especially recently…. He came home drunk a lot and I just wanted to get away. And when I saw you guys, it was an opportunity to get as far away from him as possible. And I took it." Nico nodded, he knew what it was like to have a fall-out with his father. He himself detested his father, it was because of him, that he had to endure such suffering. "And your leg?" Nico gestured at the leg Coach had bandaged up for Lysander on the first day. "Dad was drunk and I confessed," His voice faltered, "something - and we had this huge row, that's when he threw a bottle at me. The glass shards gashed my leg. Right then I knew I had to get out of there, so I grabbed a few things and fled. That's when I found you guys." Nico raised an eyebrow, but chose not to ask what Lysander had confessed to his drunk father that day. "That's rough, I'm sorry…. Explain about how you know everything about Mythology, your knowledge is too extensive for a typical class." Nico's words began slurring together. "Well if you saw randommythical creatures that no-one else saw and everyone, your friends and family thought you were insane...You would do some research too. I obsessed over them, it kept me sane." Nico remained silent for a while, possibly mulling this new information over. "Do we have any food?" Lysander's stomach dropped. "I haven't found any, but I didn't want to leave you on your own for long either…" "You starved to keep me safe?" Nico whispered. Lysander looked up nervously. "Well I'm the reason you're injured anyway, you should have gone to Camp and left me behind." "That was emnot /eman option! What are we going to do? You're going to have to leave! Are you insane, watching over me doesn't do anyone any good, if you die of STARVATION!" "FINE!" Lysander shouted at him. "Just trying to return the favor!" With that, he snatched up the empty zip lock bag and stormed out. Nico reflected he ought not have been so harsh, but chivalry made him angry. Percy did that constantly….If Percy had been with him… He imagined himself awakening next to Percy, feeling the rising and falling of Percy's body next to his instead of Lysander's. Or Percy telling him he had starved to keep Nico safe. Nico shook his head. How was it that Percy could creep into his thoughts like that? And with that he fell asleep, knowing he was too weak to even stay awake until Lysander returned. /p