"Why do you efen want to go down into the catacombfs anyway? There'ffs no light there!"
"So?"
"Will. You hate the dark."
"But I want to see what the Hephaestus cabin is hiding. Also, they probably have some way of lighting it..."
"And thaf's another reafon why not to do it! They're going to kill me iff they ffee me near there - ow!"
"Sorry!" Will pulled the wad of tissue away from Nico's lip, and threw them into a metal basket nearby. "I think it's stopped bleeding... Annabeth really knows how to hit people, huh?"
Nico scowled balefully at him. "You're the one that gafe me to them..."
"Sorry." Will pushed his blond hair away from his eyes again.
"S' fine. They'd hafe found me anyway..."
They fell into silence. Will's siblings were at a canoeing class on the lake; Will had stayed behind. The Apollo cabin was quite nice, Nico reflected, if a little cramped.
He probed his lip with his tongue and gave a hiss of pain.
"Ofay. I'll take you down there. If you let me teahf you to sword fight." He'd been trying to teach Will this for ages; Will simply refused to learn. He usually just said that Nico could fight well enough for both of them.
He said something like that now.
"What if I'fe juft shadow-travelled and I'm unconfiouf?"
I won't always be here to protect you...
And I hate not being able to pronounce 's' and 'v'. Thanks, Annabeth.
"Fine!" Will threw his tanned hands in the air as a gesture of defeat. "I'll learn to fight, you take me to the tunnels. Deal?"
"Deal."
Two identical heads poked around the door. They looked about eight years old, and had frizzy blond hair and blue eyes just like Will's.
Will's are brighter, though, Nico told himself.
They each had a tooth missing and were smiling great, gappy smiles.
"Will, and N-Nico -"
"-if you're here. Chiron -"
"-wants to see you -"
"-now."
It was kinda creepy the way they finished each others sentences, but Will just grinned.
He must be used to it...
"Nico, this is Isla, and this is Arla. Say hello!"
Nico rolled his eyes. "I'm not complefely socially inepf, you know... Hello, twins."
Will chuckled and ruffled the girls' dandelion puff hair. "Sure, we're just coming."
The twins rushed off towards the stables, laughing.
"Well? Come on, Nico."
Will grabbed Nico's sleeve and pulled him towards the Big House.
"Why does he want us, Soleggiato?"
"You still haven't told me what that means."
Nico just shook his head.
When they reached the Big House, the door was unlocked. Chiron was sitting in the rec room, watching Seymour growl at one of the arcade machines.
"Sit down, sit down." He gestured at a pair of empty chairs, and they sat. Nico exchanged a glance with the other boy. Chiron seemed distracted.
Nico didn't speak. He didn't want to draw attention to his split lip, so Will spoke instead. "What's wrong?"
Chiron looked startled. "Nothing's wrong! I just have a task for you to do, that's all."
"What is it?"
"Demigod pick up. There's one in New Orleans, but the Satyrs refuse to go there..."
Nico leaned forward excitedly. He hadn't left camp in a while (his brief trips too and from Australia two weeks ago didn't count; he'd been to exhausted and angry to pay attention to much), and was looking forward to leaving now.
With Will.
The blond seemed to be thinking along the sane lines. "When do we leave?"
"Now. Or rather, as soon as possible."
"Cool."
Will kept it together until they left the blue walled building, then he jumped up and down in the air. "We're leaving camp! We're leaving camp!"
"Calm down!"
He's like a child... but then, most denigods didn't leave camp very much...
"No! Go and pack a bag, and I'll meet you by Thalia's tree in ten minutes."
Nico left the still bouncing Will and grabbed a black bag with 'Never trust the living' written on. After throwing a few essentials in there - clothes, Mrs O'Leary's whistle, Dante's Inferno, a few daggers, and a travel pillow (black, with cartoon bones all over it) - he sprinted to the boundary line.
"Ready to go?"
"You bet!"
A single snap of his fingers brought Jules-Albert to the surface; they climbed in and sped away.
A/N Never trust the living - Corpse Bride. Also a good film.
Reviews make (my little corner of) the world go round, so thanks!
Well done, LittleDeformedOne for guessing the speaker at the end of the last chapter!
~Fi