Nico stared grumpily at the fruit salad Toby had one of the magical bowls summon for him. He didn't want to eat it but Toby and E.J. both said he had to eat at least some of it, his stomach had shrunk during the time he hadn't been eating and he needed to stretch it out again. That hurt and made him feel sick, so he was far from enthusiastic about the prospect.
Toby was up on deck now with Leo, who was at the wheel. Nico could imagine the conversations they were having.
Toby: "So you randomly set yourself on fire?"
Leo: "Sometimes, ya."
Toby: "That's cool, sometimes I set things on fire on purpose."
Leo: "What sort of things?"
Toby: "A couple forests, a dozen or so houses, and a whole lot of dead bodies."
Leo: "Oh uhhh cool." says while inching slowly away from Toby.
Nico chuckled at the idea then sighed heavily. At least he was alone . He doubted that anyone would find him having a staring contest with a bowl of fruit any stranger than many other things he had done in the course of his time on the Argo II, but he would still feel awkward. Nico took another bite of fruit, watermelon he thought, and forced himself to eat it. At least fruit wasn't heavy food, that made it easier. He managed three more bites before he gave up, willing the bowl to make the rest of the fruit disappear which it did.
Instead he grabbed a cup and made it fill with fresh fruit juice, it would just have to do. Sipping the drink he went up on deck to rescue Leo from Toby. When he got up the reality was almost exactly what he had imagined. Toby was sort of rambling and Leo was edging away from him looking mildly green, staring wide eyed at the horizon.
"Toby?" Nico called. Toby snapped to attention, cutting off in the middle of his sentence and happily bouncing over to Nico. Nico couldn't help but smile. "Have you taken your meds yet? I have a feeling you were too busy making sure I ate this morning to remember."
"Oops." Toby said, his eyes widening guiltily. "You did eat though, right?"
"Yes I ate and it's not too late for you take your meds yet, just hurry and don't forget to eat something with them." Nico reminded Toby. Toby disappeared below deck.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to see you, death boy." Leo sighed in relief once Toby was gone. "That dude's nuts! And not amazing nuts like me!"
"Haha Leo." Nico said sarcastically, leaning on the rail and looking over. "Of course he is, he's a horror character. Honestly I thought you two might get along, you both love fire, pranks, and doing really stupid things. I forgot how easily you scare." Leo was obviously biting his tongue to keep from responding, Nico half wished he would. "And don't call me death boy, at least call me Ghost. Some of the creeps have even started calling me Ghosty and I don't mind that as much."
"If you don't mind it, it's no fun." Leo laughed fiddling with a couple of controls on his sphere thing, though Nico couldn't tell what they did. "Why do they call you ghost?"
"It's custom among them to go by a title rather than a name, though sometimes the titles have names in them. Jason the toy maker, Jeff the killer, Kate the chaser, Puppeteer, bloody Painter etc. My title even before knowing the creeps was the Ghost King, so when I started staying with them I started going by The Ghost King more often. They know my name and some of them like Toby call me by it, but for some of them calling me Ghost or Ghosty is more comfortable."
"Well I feel comfortable calling you death boy." Leo joked and Nico sighed. Did this boy say anything that wasn't a joke? Nico felt the ora of darkness around him expand in his annoyance and Leo shifted uncomfortably.
"Sorry." Nico sighed doing his best to reign in his emotions. "It's a bit like your fire it just happens sometimes when I'm annoyed."
"Oops, my bad then." Leo said smiling crookedly. Nico did not understand Leo in the slightest, not that he had really tried. Nico did better with the dead than the living or creeps it seemed. "Soooo you've been staying with those guys for a while, huh?" Leo asked casually.
"Almost ten months, when Percy disappeared from camp Halfblood there were plenty of people who blamed me. When Annabeth publicly and loudly confronted me about my inability to tell her if Percy was alive or dead I figured it was time to run. When I shadow traveled away at random I ended up in the forest belonging to Slenderman. Toby found me there and tried to kill me before seeing my power and deciding I should meet Slenderman and possibly become a member."
"And you stayed with them." Leo asked still trying to sound casual. Nico knew that the causal mask was fake, but he couldn't tell what was under the casual.
"Yes I did." Nico agreed defensively. "I know what they do but they're very different at home. It's honestly just like living with anyone else. Some of them like L.J. like to talk about the violent things they do, but it was easy to dissuade them from talking to me about it. Other than that it's often fun, Sally and L.J. like to play hide and seek and it's fun to indulge them. I play video games with Jeff and BEN sometimes, and help Hoody and Masky with cooking, not that I'm good at it." Nico cursed his tendency to ramble but Leo was obviously listening and interested.
"I didn't hear much about this Sally. Who's she? Is she hot?" Leo wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Nico made a disgusted face.
"She's like nine if you find her hot, that's gross."
"Oops!" Leo said holding up his hands. "Nope definitely not."
"She's really sweet though. I don't know how long she's been nine, she's a poltergeist I think, and I don't know when or how she died. She's very physical now though for whatever reason and could mostly pass for alive. She likes playing hide and seek and she's part of what pulls the creeps together. Even if we don't get along she sees us all as family and it hurts her when we fight so we always do our best not to."
"How come is it that I've stayed with them longer but you always seem to know more?" Nico jumped when Toby's voice sounded from behind him. He turned to see Toby grinning and holding a half eaten sandwich.
"It's because I observe while you run around tripping over things." Nico teased. Toby shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich and tilting his head the way he always did when he ate to make the hole in his cheek less of a problem.
"Well maybe if you're both up here I'll go have another look at the statue and make sure everything's working right in the engine." Leo said quickly and vanished below deck.
"I scare him, don't I?" Toby asked once he had swallowed his mouthful.
"Ya but don't worry about it, Leo's a little flighty, he gets scared or stressed easily." Toby nodded and finished his sandwich quickly. Nico had noticed that Toby tended not to chew very much, he couldn't help but wonder if that was bad for Toby's throat or stomach. In the quiet Nico could hear what sounded like Piper and Jason arguing softly, though he had no idea what it was about. Hopefully not anything to do with him and Toby.
"We'll be at the house of Hades soon." Nico said staring out over the ocean. It was a bit cool today but he didn't mind, honestly it had been too hot for him the last little while.
"Right and what's going to happen when we get there?" Toby asked.
"We have to confront one of the giants and the witch working with him to try and save Percy and Annabeth and close the doors of death. That's what I originally set out to do and failed. The scepter is supposed to allow me to summon a Roman legion of undead, more than I can normally. That's supposed to allow us to succeed where I failed before. The problem is they only obey a Roman commander, and I'm not a Roman. We thought Jason could do it since he's a praetor, but Cupid seemed to hint that he wouldn't be accepted."
"I'm just going to pretend I understood that and look concerned." Toby said and indeed managed to look concerned, making Nico chuckle softly.
"It means we have an army but no one to lead them that we know of." Nico sighed. "And no time to find someone so we have to go in and hope for the best. It's my fathers domain at least, so maybe I'll be more powerful there. Maybe I'll be able to command them after all, but maybe is about all we have right now. Not that anything is ever a sure thing, we have this thing we call 'Demigod luck'. Nothing ever goes right for us particularly."
"Huh yep I think a lot of the creeps are familiar with that kind of luck too." Toby chucked putting a comforting arm around Nico, though he retreated quickly after a comforting squeeze. Nico appreciated it Frank, Leo, or Hazel could come up on deck at any time after all. "I won't say anything hopeful so I don't jinx it but I am hopeful." Toby said grinning at Nico who did his best to smile back. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask what are the pictures on the walls of the mess hall?"
"They're scenes from camp Halfblood." Nico said, glad for the change of subject. "Leo set them up to play real time so the demigods could feel a bit like they were at home."
"And Leo is a child of…?"
"Hephaestus. The god of blacksmithing, mechanics, and fire." Nico explained. "That's why Leo can speak machine, why he's so good with technology, and why he bursts into flames from time to time. He's supposed to be able to control it, but sometimes emotion rules demigod powers more than we do."
"I noticed." Toby chucked. "By the way what happened on top of that hill to make you so upset? I could feel it in that darkness."
"Cupid." Nico said scowling fiercely.
"The little valentines day guy with wings?" Toby asked tilting his head. Nico had mentioned Cupid before but obviously it hadn't registered.
"That's what modern society has made of him. He's the god of insane love, the kind that leads jealous lovers to kill their partners or commit suicide." Nico ran his hands though his hair distractedly, annoyed when they caught on a tangle. "Apparently he's been watching me since I was six. In order to get the scepter he made me admit to the crush I had before you in front of Jason. If he was a mortal I would have killed him instead. He's Thanatos, the god of death's twin brother, but Cupid said it himself 'death is often kinder."
"Yikes." Toby said his eyes wide. Just then Piper came storming up onto deck. "Let's go below deck and give her some space." Nico murmured moving closer to Toby so Piper couldn't hear. "She and Jason just argued, she needs to be alone." Toby nodded and followed Nico below deck. They ended up in the mess hall where they pulled a couple of the comfortable chairs away from the table. Hazel came in soon after.
"Oh good morning, Nico." She said smiling fondly at him.
"Is it still morning? Nico chuckled softly.
"Probably not." Hazel laughed. "You look a bit better."
"Ya I actually got a few hours of sleep last night for once and Toby made sure I ate something for breakfast."
"That's good to hear." Hazel said fondly. "Thanks for looking after him."
"It's my pleasure, Nico's my best friend." Toby said grinning at her and making a small noise as he twitched more violently than usual. Nico took that as a sign Toby was a bit nervous, Hazel looked a little taken aback. "Sorry, I really can't control them" Toby said blushing slightly.
"It's alright." Hazel assured him. "Almost all demigods have ADHD and dyslexia, we understand mental differences." She said reassuringly. The same oldness Nico felt sometimes showing through her eyes, making her look almost motherly. "I'm glad Nico has made some friend in this time period, goodness knows it's not easy for either of us. Just a little while ago Leo freaked out when he realized I had no idea what a 'chicken nugget' was, and I'm still not used to all the automobiles everywhere."
"You're from the past too?" Toby asked fidgeting nervously.
"Yes." Hazel said nodding. "But I wasn't just sort of pushed outside of time like Nico, I died, about 1942 I think. But since I'm a child of Pluto during all this chaos between life and death I was able to slip out again with Nico there to lead me. That was about nine and a half months ago, he took me to camp Jupiter then."
"That was when I had to go to the underworld to return Mrs. O'Leary and pick up the book that helped us defeat the Operator." Nico told Toby to give him some context.
"We? You mean you, none of us were strong enough to fight him at all." Toby corrected. Hazel asked about the Operator and they had only just started when the ship careened to one side and hit a sudden cold spell. All three of them were knocked out of their chairs, and rushed up the stairs only to find the door to the deck frozen shut with ice that Frank was trying to bust through with no success.
Nico wasn't sure how long it was, but after a little while the air suddenly warmed again. The ice melted quickly after that and they burst out onto deck only to find Piper standing there looking very pleased with herself. The deck was covered in ice and Festus twisted his neck to look at them.
"What happened here!?" Jason yelped as the ice started melting slowly, there was no sign of Leo.
"Khione and the Boreads." Piper said sounding no less pleased with herself. "But we shouldn't have any problems with them again and I think Festus is properly alive now. Never underestimate the power of love." Suddenly her face fell. "On the downside Khione knocked Leo off the ship. I don't know where he fell."
"Okay do you know where we are?" Jason asked glancing over the side of the railing at sand, lots of sand got closer. "Or where we're crashing more specifically. GET DOWN!" He tackled Piper to the deck and then all of them his the deck as well. But they didn't crash, instead a wind caught them and helped the ship limp into a building none of them had seen it blended so perfectly with the sand.
"Welcome friends!" Someone cheered once they were inside. "Any enemy of the Boreads is a friend of mine, please make yourself at home." Wind spirits rushed around securing the Argo II to a dock. "Come come we are the South winds, we will help you."
That attitude didn't last long though. It wasn't long before the southern winds lost interest in them. Nico didn't mind this heat as much as the others, but it was nearly debilitating to Toby. Since his body didn't have the appropriate reactions to dealing with heat like sweating, he was incredibly prone to over heating. Even though Toby hardly noticed this discomfort, for his own safety he had been reduced to staying as still as possible in the shadiest and coolest places Nico was able to find for him.
At night Toby could move around more freely and did his best to help on the ship then, but he knew little about it. Nico even less, so they gave up quickly on that too. One night Toby and Nico went out and had a meeting with some of the skin-walkers of this desert and they had agreed to bring them parts they needed if they could get them. But besides that, Nico and Toby hadn't been able to do much useful. They were still trying to get in contact with BEN to see if he could come help fix some of the more fiddly equipment, but that hadn't been working out either.
Now it was day time again and Toby was resting. Nico was wandering around rather aimlessly until he spotted Jason. Jason heard his approach and turned looking Nico over appraisingly.
"Any word from the king?" Nico asked Jason, standing a bit back and crossing his arms. Jason had been called on every day so far by the King of the south winds for an audience.
"Every day he calls for me later and later." Jason sighed running his hands back through his now almost white hair.
"We need to leave soon." Nico reminded Jason, scowling.
"You sense something." Jason guessed.
"Percy is close to the doors of death." Nico said. He couldn't sense it, but he knew it was true all the same. Might as well let Jason believe he sensed it so he wouldn't doubt it. "He'll need us if he's going to make it through alive."
"Alright, but if we can't fix the ship."
"I promised I would lead you to the house of Hades." Nico interrupted glaring at Jason. "One way or another, I will."
"You can't shadow travel all of us." Jason pointed out defensively. "And it will take all of us to reach the doors of death." Nico could feel a small pulse of power radiating from the scepter at his side, aligning with his annoyance.
"Then you've got to convince the king of the south winds to help." Nico snarled "I didn't come all this way, suffer so many humiliations…" Nico trailed off in a soft growl, not wanting to elaborate.
"Look, Nico, I'm here if you want to talk about, you know, what happened back in Croatia. I get how difficult."
"You don't get anything." Nico snapped over whatever Jason was going to say. He wished Jason would just stop trying.
"Nobodies going to judge you." Jason insisted and Nico couldn't help the sneer that twisted his lips.
"Really?" Nico gasped in mock surprise. "That would be a first! I'm a son of Hades , Jason! I might as well be covered in blood or sewage the way most people treat me. I don't belong anywhere. I'm not even from this century. But even that's not enough to set me apart, I just had to be gay." Nico lowered his voice when he said it, still not comfortable with the idea of anyone else overhearing.
"Dude! It's not like it's your choice. It's just who you are." Jason said.
"Just who I am…" Nico did his best to get his emotions under control but he couldn't seem to help the small tremor that went through the ground under their feet. It wasn't even what Jason was saying because Nico knew it wasn't a choice. If it was he would have chosen differently a long time before meeting Toby, it was who was saying them. "Easy for you to say. You're every ones golden boy, the son of Jupiter. The only person who ever accepted me before I started hanging out with a gang of murderers was Bianca and she died! I did not choose any of this. My father, my feelings…" Nico could have continued but he stopped himself, it seemed to have worked anyway. Jason seemed to be speechless.
Yeah, okay." Jason said finally raising his hands in submission. "But Nico, you do choose how to live your life. You want to trust somebody? Maybe take a risk that I'm really your friend and I'll accept you. That's better than hiding from two of the three worlds you're apart of, isn't it?"
"Hiding." Nico hissed, a crevice in the ground opening up between them. He was sick of that word. People used it against him all the time, he was always hiding from something. With Percy and Hades he was hiding from his responsibilities, with Cupid he was hiding from his feelings, and now with Jason he was apparently hiding from the world. Oh he was so sick of it.
"Yes hiding." Jason insisted mulishly, despite the fact that Nico could tell he was itching to draw his sword and defend against Nico. Well that made an amazing point about how much Jason trusted Nico. "You've run away from both camps. You're so afraid you'll get rejected that you won't even try. Maybe it's time you came out of the shadows."
Nico let his anger build between them for a couple more moments but when Jason didn't back down Nico looked down instead. He took a few deep breaths getting a grip on his powers and closing the fissure in the ground. It wasn't Jason's fault he didn't know what he was talking about, after all Nico hadn't told Jason hardly anything about his life. Jason hadn't asked.
"I'm going to honor my promise." Nico sighed resignedly. "I'll take you to Epirus. I'll help you close the doors of death. Then that's it. I'm leaving again." At one time he might have said leaving forever and meant killing himself, now he meant going back with Toby. Nico was done saving the world. Let someone else worry about it now. He was saved from knowing Jason's response by the doors to the king's chambers bursting open and Jason being summoned in. Nico slipped away quickly.