NICO

Nico gritted his teeth and looked at the slightly taller camper walking alongside him.

"What do you want, Will? I don't have all day."

Will gave Nico a stern look, his soft blue eyes ablaze with a deadly flame. Nico looked away, and instead stared at the hundreds of strawberry bushes in the vincity.

"Something's upsetting you, you're not acting like yourself."

"And what makes you think that?" Nico's tone was soft, but there was undertones of anger quaking beneath.

Will stuffed his hands into his pockets, not breaking eye contact with Nico.

"Well, your usual sassiness is gone, for one. You didn't even give me that 'I'll kill you in your sleep, Solace' signature glare like you usually do!"

Nico balled his hands into fists and glared at the son of Apollo, unable to think of a comeback.

Will cocked his head, amusement flickering in his eyes. "There's your signature glare. I knew it was hiding somewhere." Will laughed, then shook his head. "But that's not the point. You've been acting really weird, and as your camp medic and friend," Will slathered emphasis on the word 'friend' ,"I need to know what's bothering you."

Nico picked up a rock and rubbed in between his fingers. He knew that there was no way of getting past Will Solace. Gods, that guy was unbelievably stubborn. He was going to have to tell him, one way or another.

Nico stared at Will, his expression guarded. "Why should I tell you?"

Will rolled his eyes, clearly exasperated. "I just told you, idiot! Did everything I just say pass right through you?" Will sighed. "Because I'm you're camp medic and your friend."

"And what makes you think were friends?"

Will threw his hands up into the air. "Seriously, death boy? I don't know, maybe because we hang out all the time? You actually tolerate me and seem to like my company?" Will's voiced dripped with sarcasm.

Nico stayed silent. He didn't want to admit that Will was right, Nico did consider him a friend. He also didn't want to explain to Will why he was upset. Gods, why did that guy have to be so freaking stubborn?

"Did you have nightmares?"

Nico froze, shock pulsing through his body. He stayed like this for awhile, staring off into the distance.

But how does he know..?

"H-How in Hades do you know that, Solace?" Nico tried his best to keep his usual angry demeanor.

Will shrugged, a serious and compassionate look replacing his stern glare.

"Percy comes in once in a while and asks for something to help him sleep. I asked him what was bothering him and he said Tartarus gives him nightmares once in a while. I figured you would have to deal with the same thing, maybe even worse, because...you were... you didn't have anyone with you in Tartarus."

Nico could see the word 'alone' almost escaping Will's lips. He silently thanked him for not using that term. Nico was already very well acquainted with the word 'alone'. You could use that word to describe his whole life, really.

He felt his anger dissipating quickly, turning into the familiar feeling of sadness. Will had an innate ability to comfort people, even Nico, which was an extremely hard thing to do. He stayed silent for a few moments, mentally preparing himself to explain to Will what was happening. As much as he hated it, he knew Will would never back down.

Nico exhaled slowly. "Yes... I had nightmares last night. I get them pretty often... but last night Bianca was in them."

Nico felt like a tiny weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He never realized how good it felt to actually tell someone about his struggles, because he had always kept it to himself.

Will nodded, and motioned for Nico to continue.

"I was in Tartarus... and Bianca was on the ground a little ways away, bleeding to death. I called to her, and I tried to reach her, but there was a kind of... forcefield... in the way. Bianca didn't fight it though. She told me something... I can't remember it exactly but it was something along the lines of, 'Go, brother... You have so much left to do.'.."

Nico stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. Emotions were welling up inside him, and he was not comfortable opening up in front of Will.

Wait... why was he revealing so much to Will Solace, of all people? This was a terrible idea.

"Ok, Will. I think you get the point. Can we go now?"

Will grimaced. "Okay, Nico. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I just wish you would figure out that there are people who actually care about you. You don't have to keep it all in. It's okay."

Nico was already on the brink of losing it, because of having to recount his nightmare about Bianca. Though, what Nico absolutely hated, was when people try to comfort him. There was something about the tone of voice they used, or the meaningless things they said, that always made Nico angry.

Nico let the emotion that had built up unleash. So many emotions... fear, anger, sadness...

Conflicting emotions...

It was almost unbearable.

A whirlwind of emotions put a fuzzy outline around Nico's vision. He tried to settle on one emotion to end the storm erupting inside him.

Subconsciously, Nico picked the one emotion he knew best to act upon. The emotion that had been his mask for years. The emotion he was most familiar with, other than depression.

Anger.

AUTHORS NOTES:

Alright! It's finally here! Sorry for the late upload (again...), I was having some technical difficulties with my computer ^ ^'

Lets just say that I'll upload a new chapter once or twice every TWO weeks instead of one... I'm not sure my computer is going to cooperate with me anymore.

So now that we have the exposition chapters out of the way, actual stuff is starting to happen! Hooray!

I'm trying to make the story as well written and free of spelling errors as possible... Though I'm only 13... I haven't had many sophisticated writing classes yet. xD

Thank you to everyone who likes and comments on this fanfic, it means a lot. I wish I could reply to you guests who comment, but sadly I cannot. I can only tell you now that it means the world to me. Thanks again! 333