Thank you all so much for the reviews!

Falling asleep that night after Leo left had been hard.

It didn't make any sense, why would Nico have these things? What would he possibly need an impenetrable and inescapable containment facility for? Who was the woman? What if it was just left over from when Hades was in charge? Was he planning to kidnap Supergirl? But that still didn't explain the woman from the pictures. Unless the containment facility had been for the woman. But what would he want with her? And why all the precautions? Even if it had been leftover from Hades, shouldn't Nico have found it by now and done something about it?

There was a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. There had to be. Just because Leo found these two things didn't necessarily mean they were connected.

Jason needed to get to the bottom of this.

Leo had let Jason keep his findings, and they were now tucked securely away in Jason's jacket. The elevator felt slower than usual today as Jason rode up to Nico's office.

The building had more or less returned to normal after Nico's release, a few reporters had still lurked outside hoping to get a comment, but all the employees had returned. The receptionist outside Nico's office actually smiled at him as she let him through.

"Jason," he stood to greet him. "This is...a surprise."

"I wanted to see how you were doing." Jason said as he walked closer.

"Fine, thanks to you. I was going to get you a thank you present," Nico looked away, "but then I realized I don't actually know what you like."

"I don't need a present, Nico."

Nico looked back up at him. "I know." Nico kept looking at him. "Checking up on me isn't the only reason you're here, is it?"

"No."

"What is it this time? Should I take a guess?"

Jason thought he saw a smile playing at Nico's lips. At the lack of response the trace vanished.

"You remember how I told you my friend Leo helped prove you were innocent?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the way he did that was by hacking into your computer." Nico took a fraction of a step back. "It was the only way we could get the evidence to get you out."

"You still shouldn't have-"

"I know. I know you value your privacy, but I also knew you didn't help Hades escape."

Nico's jaw clenched as he stared down at the desk.

"What else did you find then? I'm assuming that's why you're really here."

Jason nodded even though Nico didn't look up to see the confirmation, so instead Jason just pulled the papers from his pocket and set them in front of Nico.

After staring at them for a moment Nico finally reached out to pick them up. He took a moment to look them over; when he finished, he set them back on the table.

"You must have some theories." Nico finally said. "I'm curious as to what they could be."

"Nico-"

"No. I want to know."

Jason took one look at him and sighed. Nico wasn't going to let this go, and something told him that if he tried to talk his way out of it something would fracture beyond repair, their relationship wouldn't be the same again. It felt like he was being tested.

"The containment facility," Jason decided to start with, "is something left over from Hades. Perhaps to capture Supergirl, or someone else; whoever it is, he doesn't want them getting out." Jason moved the papers about the facility to the side to uncover pictures of the woman. "As for her, I don't know. The pictures are all very candid, almost like he was...stalking her."

Nico's eyes narrowed slightly. "You really don't think I have anything to do with all of this?"

"I saw footage of you supposedly aiding and abetting and didn't believe it."

Nico seemed to be at a loss for words. He sighed and let his arms fall from where they'd been crossed, the tension seeping out of his shoulders.

"All that trust is going to get you hurt one day." Nico said.

"So I've been told." Jason smiled slightly and adjusted his glasses, perhaps Nico and Annabeth had more in common than they originally thought.

Nico looked over at the facility papers.

"You're wrong about the containment facility; it isn't Hades. It's mine." Nico continued before Jason could interrupt. "I started work on it after my father was arrested. I knew that no normal prison could hold him for very long, he has too many connections. It's why I had some of my own people on the inside watching him for me, so that when he tried to escape I could intercept him; but we've seen how well that worked out."

"It's for Hades? But he doesn't have any powers or abilities. Why..."

"All the precautions? As I said, my father's reach is far and wide, I like to cover all my bases. And to be quite honest I don't trust other people or organizations to keep him contained humanely. He may have done some bad things, but he's still my father."

"And the pictures?"

"Her name is Hazel Levesque. She's my sister...half sister." Nico amended at Jason's look of confusion. Nico continued, "It's kind of a recent development. I didn't even know about her until shortly before Hades was arrested."

Jason finally took a seat in front of the desk. "How did you find out?"

"He told me." Nico sat in front of Jason. "He knew the police were closing in on him. He knew that several of his accounts would be frozen, so he put me in charge of them. Ever since he found out about her he's been sending her mother money, making sure they're taken care of; it's the least he can do."

"How long has he known about her?"

"From what I gather a few years."

"So, Hades took the pictures."

"Had someone take them, but yes. They're from when he first found out about her."

"Does she know?"

Nico sighed. "Hazel's mother didn't want anything to do with Hades, and Hades wanted her to have a normal life, out of the spotlight." He stared down at his interlaced fingers on the table. "But she found out everything after Hades went to jail." Nico smiled faintly. "We've been getting to know each other since then."

"Leo didn't find anything about that."

"Good. That means my efforts to protect her identity aren't wasted then."

Jason could only imagine the field day the press would have if they found out Hades had a secret daughter. As a member of that press Jason realized the amount of trust Nico was putting in him by telling him all of this. If Jason were lesser of a man he could tear Nico's world apart with everything he knew.

"Did that answer all of your questions?" Nico asked.

It hadn't, but it had answered enough; Jason didn't want to pry any more than he already had so he nodded.

"Now you can go tell your friend Leo that I'm not as bad as he thought I was." He said it almost jokingly, as though he never expected Jason to do it.

"Or," Jason said drawing out the word, suddenly remembering the night at the police station. "You could tell him yourself."

The idea had originally came from Jason and Thalia's siblings night. It was an easy and fun way to stay connected with their friends. Meet ups were a bit more infrequent due to everyone's busy schedules, and sometimes not everyone could make it. Annabeth, along with Percy, usually missed most of them; and if they were the ones hosting then Jason was most likely to be unable to attend. Which in retrospect was probably a good thing since Jason and Percy usually got super competitive.

Normally they just played regular board games. But this time they had decided to try a campaign. At their last meet up they had all been tasked with creating a character for next time; Reyna had been chosen as the Game Master via coin flip, much to Leo's dismay.

Jason's dining table had been cleared off to make room as Thalia helped Reyna set up, and Leo had taken it upon himself to order pizza.

"I hope your boy doesn't expect anything fancy." Leo told him from the couch.

Jason nearly dropped the plates in his hands. "I-he's not my boy!" Leo snickered. "And I don't know if he's even going to come." Jason may have extended the invitation, but Nico had looked hesitant when he said he'd think about it.

"If he does, you did tell him to bring a character sheet right?" Piper asked.

"...Uh." Piper sighed at him. "What? I'm lucky I even remembered to make my own."

"Yeah, a human paladin, how completely unexpected." Leo said rolling his eyes.

"Like yours is any better?"

"Hell yeah he is, my dwarf bard is going to kick your ass!"

"Wait," Piper said, "I thought we were all on the same team?"

"We are," Thalia said as she came from the other room, Reyna following in behind her. "What are we fighting about?"

"Jason forgot to tell di Angelo to make a character."

"Well that's going to make it a bit hard for him to play."

Jason signed and flopped down onto the chair beside the couch. "I invited him to game night. I completely forgot that we were doing a story thing."

"Jason, it's fine." Reyna said. "If and when he gets here we'll figure it out then."

"Right." Thalia said. "Now you losers ready to play?"

They all made their way over to the dining table, Reyna at the head with some papers splayed out in front of her. They all took turns introducing their characters. For someone who had never GMed before, Reyna seemed to set up the story effortlessly, explaining how to play as she did so. She had obviously done her research.

There was a knock at the door, Leo jumped up. "Pizza's here!"

They had all given their share of the total and tip earlier so the interaction would take as little time as possible. But when Leo reentered the room pizza boxes weren't stacked in his arms. Instead an awkward looking Nico stood beside him.

"Oh, am I late?"

Jason had almost given up hope that Nico was going to come. He looked good too; Jason had never seen him in anything other than a suit before, now he wore some fitted dark jeans and a long sleeve purple v neck shirt. Thalia kicked him under the table.

"No. We, uh, we just got started." Jason said as he discreetly slipped on his glasses.

"We saved you a seat." Thalia said gesturing to the chair beside Jason.

Nico slowly made his way over to it, still looking at Thalia. "Do I know you? You look familiar."

"I stopped that guy from shooting you that time you gave your speech."

"She's also my sister, Thalia." Jason then gestured to the others. "That's Leo and Reyna, and you've already officially met Piper."

"It's nice to see you again." Nico told her.

"Likewise." Piper said with a knowing look directed at Jason.

Nico glanced over at Reyna before taking a seat. Jason could only imagine how strange it must be to see the person who had arrested you again.

"I didn't know you were friends." He said looking between Reyna and Jason.

"Yeah, we met through Thalia."

"Nico," Reyna said, "did Jason tell you what we were playing?"

"No, not really."

"So you don't have a character ready." Leo stated. He had taken a seat beside Piper.

Even though Jason had pulled Leo aside beforehand, after telling the others that he'd invited Nico, and explained to him the reasoning behind the pictures and the contaminant facility, he was still acting weird.

"Character?"

"We're playing D&D. Dungeons and Dragons." Jason explained. "I completely forgot what we were playing this time. Sorry I didn't tell you to prepare a character beforehand."

"I can just watch then." Nico said.

"Are you sure?" Jason asked.

"You could always voice one of the NPCs," Reyna suggested. "I'm not doing character voices so it would add some variety."

"No, that's fine. I'm alright with just watching for now."

With that Reyna briefly explained where they were at and continued on with the story. Before they got too far though they all took a moment to reintroduce their characters, from Piper's elf rouge, to Jason's human paladin- which upon hearing earned a small snort from Nico.

No one else seemed to noticed the reaction. Jason wanted to ask about it, he even thought about typing up a note on his phone and passing it over as to not draw attention to them; but that would probably also draw attention if they got caught. So Jason just gave Nico a confused look and ultimately let it go.

As the night went on Nico seemed to relax little by little, he even helped solve a couple of the puzzles.

In Jason's opinion the night turned out to be a success. Unfortunately though it did have to come to an end, and Reyna only left them wanting more with high anticipation for next time.

They all cleaned up their trash, leaving the dishes for Jason to wash, and said their goodbyes for the night. Thalia left with Reyna, and Leo asked Piper to give him a lift home since he had came with Jason from the DEO.

Which left Nico, who was looking at the line of pictures placed on the mantel.

Jason made his way over to him, Nico looked at him out of the corner of his eye, but otherwise didn't move. Most of the pictures were just of him and Thalia through the years, there were only a couple of the two of them and their mom in the entire apartment.

"How'd you get that scar on your lip?" Nico asked.

"What?" Jason laughed slightly at the random question.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Nico seemed to backpedal. "I was just curious, and I noticed there's not a single picture where you don't have it."

That was because he had gotten the scar on Krypton.

"I tried to eat a stapler when I was two." Jason said, but to be honest he didn't know how he'd really gotten the scar, he had never thought to ask before he was sent to Earth; the stapler had just been the cover story that Thalia had come up with should anyone ask about it.

Nico let out a puff of air resembling a laugh and shook his head.

"A stapler, really?"

"Yeah. How'd you think I got it? You must have some theories." He said echoing Nico's earlier words.

"I don't know." He said shrugging. "You stopped a mugging or something."

"Yep, at two years old I stopped a mugging. I was a super baby."

The smile from the laugh still lingered on his face. "I wouldn't be surprised. But you have to remember I didn't know you were two when I was coming up with my theories."

"Okay, fair." Nico turned back to look at the pictures but Jason just kept looking at him. "I'm glad you came." Jason told him.

"I'll admit I seriously thought about not coming. But I'm glad I did." Nico looked back toward him, the smile only faded slightly. "Do you know when the last time I played something like D&D was?"

"I didn't know you had played before."

"It wasn't Dungeons and Dragons exactly, but similar enough." He looked back at the pictures, not wanting to look Jason in the eye. "It was before Bianca died."

Jason froze. Not once, with the exception of his first interview, had Nico ever talked about Bianca. If the subject ever strayed close to her he would turn it away.

"She would play Mythomagic with me occasionally." Nico continued. "I knew she wasn't really into it but….that's what siblings do for each other sometimes. It was nice to be a part of it again. I hadn't realized how much I missed it."

"You don't talk about her a lot." Jason tried.

"No. I don't." Nico seemed to be done with the conversation, but it didn't feel right to leave it there. Jason had never tried to push Nico on something he clearly didn't want to talk about, but this time it felt like he had too.

"I get it. It can be painful to talk about the ones you've lost; even if it's happy things."

"You sound like you have experience with it."

"Well, my birth family died in a fire." It wasn't to far from the truth. "Then after I was adopted by Thalia's family her dad left and a few years later her mom ran herself off a cliff when she was drunk. So yeah, I have a bit of experience."

"Oh." He didn't say anything else, and Jason was grateful. He had heard 'I'm sorry' enough to last a lifetime, and he never knew what to say in response. He figured Nico probably had a similar experience.

"What I'm saying is, it hurts to talk about them, but sometimes it's nice to remember. Trying to forget only hurts yourself in the long run. So if you ever wanted someone to talk to about her, I'm happy to listen."

Nico's fingers tapped against his leg and it took him a moment to look up at Jason.

"Maybe." He said. "But not today."

Jason nodded. "Whenever you want."

After taking care of the dishes and making sure all the trash had been picked up Jason finally made his way to bed. He couldn't stop thinking about the conversation he'd had with Nico. Just when he thought he'd figured him out Nico seemed to always surprise him.

He grabbed his phone off the nightstand, where it had been charging, as he settled in. He had a few messages sent from the others shortly after they'd left. Most of it was low key approval of Nico, but they were still a bit skeptic. When he got to Thalia's it was mostly just teasing.

Thalia

11:38 PM

-don't think i didn't notice how much you were staring at him tonight

-you thought no one was looking

-but i see all!

-i'm not letting you live this down for at least a week dude

12:03 AM

-you actually really like him, don't you?

And well, Jason couldn't really disagree.