It took weeks before Nico managed to finish all the funerals and Toby never left him the entire time. He would find ways to make himself useful elsewhere during the funerals because he hadn't known the people being buried, but after they were over he was back at Nico's side. Nico came out to the rest of his friends at camp and his sister because they would have started realizing soon anyway. Nico and Toby were not very good at resisting affection.
Some of the other creeps stuck around too. Hoody and E.J. had bonded with almost everyone in the Apollo cabin. E.J. and Will had started trying to figure out how medicating for mental disorders could work with demigods. It wasn't uncommon for demigods to get ptsd and now with the two wars over, it was more important than ever to find a way to at least control the symptoms.
To Nico's surprise Clovis was involved in that too. He thought that with his help they might be able to refine the waters of the Lithe so that it would repress bad memories. Nico wasn't sure he would take that even if they managed it. He had had enough experience with the river Lithe. Besides, even though little bits of his past were starting to come back to him he didn't have that many memories to loose and most of them were bad. If his bad memories were gone he wasn't really sure what he'd be left with. Ccertainly not the person he was now.
Still it was good to see the demigods and the creeps bonding. Jeff and a few others were getting along well with the Ares/Mars children, Bloody Painter and Clockwork were having art sessions with the children of the muses with only conventional material. Well for the most part. Clockwork and Bloody painter were experimenting with making a paint with the dust monsters left behind. Nico had seen some of their attempts so far and it was beautiful. Shimmering gold and yellow, and it tended to shift ever so slightly making the painting seem even more alive. The problem was the dust tended to escape it's binding eventually to find it's way back to tarturus and reform.
Slenderman, Splenderman, and surprisingly Kagekao were helping the most with rebuilding the camp itself. Kagekao was smaller than the other two but almost as physically strong. He could scamper up buildings carrying large wooden beams and hold them in place while they were secured. With them the rebuilding was getting done much faster than it was otherwise. Besides since Slenderman was the leader of the Creeps his help was going a long way to sow peace between the camps and the Creepypastas.
Chiron still seemed a little uncertain of them because in a way it was demigods responsibility to protect humans. However Slenderman pointed out that it was the demigods responsibility to protect humans from things within their own mythos. As the creeps were from a different mythos it was not the demigods responsibility to defend humans against them. Chiron said that that was lawyer logic, but he had excepted it, no one was ready for another war and everyone had seen how powerful the creeps were during the last war. Better to have them as allies.
Nico was half annoyed by how many people he had trying to look after him now. He was so used to being ignored but now Masky, Hoody, and Reyna had all sort of adopted him. Sally had to in a different way, Jason, E.J. and Hazel where always checking up on him and then there was Toby. He was practically dotting on Nico now that they were open about their relationship. Nico found it a little funny almost.
"Honestly Toby, I'm not going anywhere again anytime soon." Nico assured Toby one night. Nico was very glad his father was allowing Toby to sleep in the Hades cabin with him. Even Hades must have known that without Toby there Nico wouldn't get any sleep because of his nightmares. "I'm going to be okay, you don't have to fuss so much."
"I know I don't have to." Toby said kissing Nico's jaw gently. It was the middle of the night, Nico had woken up from a nightmare quietly. He didn't think he would wake Toby but Toby must have been either sleeping lightly or already awake. "But I want to, and I still almost can't believe you're back. I thought you were dead. While you were bringing that stupid statue back here I thought you were going to die again. I guess I feel like I have to show the rest of the universe how glad I am you didn't."
"There are too many ways to die for a demigod." Nico sighed turning over to kiss Toby gently. "Too many causes to die for, there's no telling how long I'll make it."
"I probably won't live long either, I'm already older than average for people with C.I.P.A." Toby pointed out softly. "Just live as long as I do, please."
"I'll try." Nico promised and Toby wrapped his arms around Nico's waist, Nico stroked Toby's jaw gently and they kissed again, long and sweet. They fell asleep again slowly. The next morning it was back to preforming rituals.
"Don't say you won't go away again though." Toby said softly stroking Nico's hair. "We both know you will eventually, you'll be called again to serve your gods and you can't say no to them anymore then I can say no to Slenderman. "
"You're right." Nico admitted with a small sigh gently tracing the line of Toby's pulse because he liked to feel the life in him. "But usually they give us a while before the next quest and with any luck it won't involve me. As far as I'm concerned I've done enough for the gods, considering they've never done much of anything for me." There was a rumble of thunder above them and Nico glared at the sky. "You know if you're always watching of course you're going to see and hear some things you don't want to." He snapped up at the ceiling and Zeus.
"I understand, just come back as soon as you can. And you'll check in with me now won't you? I know you can't use phones but you have your own ways of communicating right? And now that you don't have to keep me a secret from the demigods..?" Toby trailed off looking at Nico hopefully.
"Yes now I'll be able to contact you." Nico promised smiling softly. "I'll check in with you as often as I can while I'm away next time." Toby smiled widely, obviously very reassured by the promise and then settled back down into bed more comfortably.
Once the rebuilding was done most of the creeps that had stuck around left again, the only ones who stayed were Toby and E.J.. Others promised to come back and visit their new friends at camp halfblood and the Roman legion. Nico was mostly done with the funerals now but Will and the other healers were still loosing the fight with a few campers and there were new deaths. It was annoying him to no end because it meant that most of the time he was idle, but he couldn't just go home yet.
Three weeks after arriving back at camp half blood everyone who was going to die was finally dead and buried, and Nico could go home. Hazel, Jason, and Reyna were sad to see Nico go and tried to convince him to stay. But a lot of the demigods were back to being uncomfortable around Nico so it was no big loss to leave camp. He didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable after all and the creeps liked having him around. He promised he would go back and visit his friends though.
The first day he was back Slenderman and E.J. made sure no one swarmed him so that he could make himself comfortable again and readjust to life with the creeps. He and BEN finally got a chance to play with the oculus rift BEN had ordered before Nico had to leave for Tartarus. Playing that game Nico was glad, for the second time that his father had pulled him out of time and dumped him here, even though BEN used it to scare him.
Mostly his day was quiet, Jeff only tried to kill him once for scaring them all before Slenderman sent him away again. Nico practiced fighting with the proxies and went for a walk in the woods with Toby. They visited the lake where they had first kissed. Though it was getting into fall now and it wasn't warm enough to go swimming. Toby wanted to anyway because he wouldn't be bothered by the cold but Nico stopped him because he didn't want Toby getting sick. Toby didn't argue, he might have if it was Masky telling him not tom but as it wasn't he just held Nico's hand.
They sat on the banks and Nico watched the leaves fall onto the surface of the water and drift away contentedly. Toby got bored and started braiding Nico's hair teasing him gently about being like a grandparent.
"I'm starting to think I should keep letting it grow out." Nico said smiling slightly as his eyes followed a orange leave drifting on the water. "You and Sal love braiding it so much.
"It's up to you." Toby said shrugging. "I do like it longer though, you look really good when you put it in a ponytail."
"I'll let it grow." Nico agreed. "I have no patience with haircuts and Sally seems happy enough to brush it for me." He joked and Toby laughed.
"I am too though. You seem to like it." Toby pointed out.
"I do, it's relaxing." Nico agreed. Toby nodded and kept braiding Nico's hair. Toby must have done his sisters hair sometimes because Nico could feel that Toby had practice. Nico thought if he sat still enough Toby would tame all of Nico's hair into small braids. Nico planned to stay still long enough for him to do that. Toby seemed to have done the hyper focus thing that adhd caused sometimes so he would be willing to stay still that long to for once.
Nico watched the leaves fall, autumn was a time of death and it made Nico feel at home. But for once Nico wasn't thinking about that. He was thinking about time. How sometimes time seemed to move so slowly and other times so quickly. If felt like forever since he had met the creeps and Toby but he hoped it would only be a fraction of the time he would spend with Toby. It must have been over a year since he and Toby had gotten together because they had gotten together in mid summer and now it was the next fall.
They had been so distracted they hadn't noticed. No, Nico corrected himself, Toby had probably noticed but he had known Nico was busy so he hadn't brought it up. Nico felt guilty about that but also grateful. Toby understood that Nico had responsibilities, his heritage was a job to do. Toby did too, they could respect each others responsibilities and also stand to not tell each other things.
How odd it was that part of their relationship would always be keeping a few secrets. Nico didn't want to know about Toby's jobs and Toby knew Nico couldn't tell him about everything that he did. It was the business of the gods something that Toby could understand as a human proxy among beings like the creeps. They would live a double life but both of them were used to that, the most important life would be the one they spent together, that's what mattered. The other parts were just necessary and unwelcome distractions from each other.
There were still a few things Nico worried about, but he tried to put those aside and be happy. He was only fitting in better and better here, practicing fighting with the proxies and Jeff, playing games with L.J., Sally and Ben. Now that they all knew he was alive and had gotten used to the idea again things had calmed down and settled back into a routine. He was glad of that, he didn't like being fussed over though he couldn't seem to stop E.J., Toby, and to a lesser extent Slender from fussing over his diet and trying to make him gain some weight back.
Nico had done started doing his part to help the creeps as well . E.J. wouldn't let him transport people by shadow travel yet but he could make bodies dispose of themselves which was a useful trick when living with killers. He didn't do it often because he didn't want to be involved and most of the time the creeps wanted to show off their handy work but he did it occasionally. He liked feeling useful, he was looking forward to when he could transport people again it would be handy, particularly with the proxies who didn't actually have powers, to be able to yank them out of harms way.
He had told Toby's mother he would protect him after all and he intended too. Thinking of that he realized he had some other questions for Toby.
"Have you been in contact with your mother again?" Nico asked softly so as not to break Toby's concentration on the braids. Toby made a humming noise and took longer than usual to process what Nico had said but Nico waited patiently.
"Ya I have." Toby agreed distractedly, " Actually I called her when I thought you'd died she helped me a lot. We should probably tell her you're alive too, she'll be relieved."
"Ya." Nico agreed easily lapsing back into silence while Toby did four more braids. "I forgot our year anniversary didn't I?"
"It's alright you were really busy." Toby promised and Nico sighed.
"I'm still sorry that was a important thing. We should do something for it belatedly, even if it's just going out for dinner the two of us. It's sort of hard to get alone time around here so it would be nice to spend a bit of time with just us."
"You're right the would be nice." Toby agreed and Nico glanced up in time to catch his smile. "And relaxing, let's not do anything big though, there's been enough excitement. Maybe once it get's closer to Halloween we should find some haunted houses to go to."
"But those are always so hokey and bad." Nico groaned, "None of them are actually scary."
"I know that's what makes them fun to laugh at." Toby agreed easily and Nico shrugged because he couldn't argue with that so he didn't. He half dozed off against Toby, relaxed by the feeling of the hands in his hair. Besides now that he wasn't constantly running on adrenalin he was finding recovering exhausted him and he was sleeping more than usual. Only when Toby was near him of course because when Nico was on his own he didn't care sleep for fear of his nightmares. "Sal is just going to undo these next time she wants to do your hair."
"You're right." Nico chuckled reaching up to touch the braids Toby had already done. "But you're almost done so you might as well finish right?"
"Right." Toby agreed but first he leaned over and kissed Nico gently. "I wish I had the power to bring you life." Toby rumbled suddenly. "Like Seed Eater did that one time? You don't want to kill and I respect that but I kill anyway and their life energy is just going to waste isn't it? I wish I could bring it back to you somehow. Then you'd never start to fade like that again would you?"
"That really freaked you out didn't it?" Nico asked softly feeling just a little guilty.
"Of course it did! You were disappearing right in front of me, literally fading away. I've never… I've never seen anything like that before and there was nothing I could do. I couldn't protect you from that and I only had my energy to give and you wouldn't take anymore."
"If I'd taken anymore you wouldn't have been able to defend me. The way we did things was the best way we could." Nico assured him softly. Toby gave a frustrated sigh.
"I know it was but if I could bring you other life somehow it would have been better." Toby said. "You get along well with Seed Eater don't you? We should go see her again some time soon maybe we can find a way I can bring you the life of the people I kill." Toby saw Nico's doubt and intercepted it. "I know you don't want anyone to die for you but if they're dying anyway why not?"
"Okay we'll go see Seed Eater. You're right I like her a lot." Nico agreed because he couldn't think of a way to object to that. "I don't want to get addicted to it like my brother did but I do seem to need a little bit. I think it's like caffeine and as long as I'm careful it'll be okay."
"Good." Toby said and he sounded genuinely relieved which in turn made Nico feel a bit better about his choice. "Besides you'll probably end up using that energy for the benefit of your gods and humanity so even if there's a little bad karma or whatever from benefiting from a murder it'll be outweighed by what you do with it right?"
"Ya you're probably right." Nico agreed, relaxing again as Toby finished braiding his hair.
"We should head back. It must be almost dinner time." Toby pointed out once he was finished and finally came out of his hyper focused state. Nico frowned a little at the prospect because he wasn't looking forward to having E.J. fussing over him and making sure Nico ate exactly as much as he was supposed to. At the same time he knew that E.J. was trying to do what was best for him and as a doctor E.J. was actually in a position to know what that was so Nico put up with it.
"Alright." He agreed unenthusiastically making Toby chuckle. Toby got uo first and helped Nico to his feet after him.
They walked back towards the house together, hand in hand. They had coe a long way then the first time they had walked through these woods together from that pond for the first time. There had been many walks since then, through the forest on the way for Nico to face the Operator, through fire, ashes and shadows. Toby and Nico had been through the worst of times together and now it certainly seemed like they deserved some of the best.
Nico shifted closer to Toby, this love was so much different, better then any others he'd had. His friends here too, they liked him for who he was bad and good and they wouldn't turn away when the darkness came out. Toby had proved that they would only like him more for it.
For the first time he had not just a home but a secure one. This wasn't a home he would lose when he came out as gay, or when his powers got to strong to be comfortable for the living. He had a home today and he would for all his conservable tomorrows. He found himself smiling at that thought, it was so foreign to him but he liked it. Loved it.
"Toby?" Nico said and Toby made a small questioning sound. "Thank you for everything. I love you." Toby stopped walking and pulled Nico into his arms.
"I have just as much reason to thank you. And I love you too Nico, so fucking much." Toby answered. Nico smiled and stood on his toes to kiss Toby again because he couldn't get enough of this sweet boy he loved and who loved him back.