To Riordanlover16- Any questions, don't hesitate, that's what I'm here for XD In canon and fanon, Nico's got a whole host of adopted family. Jason, Reyna, Frank, Hazel, Will, like the Nico di Angelo Defence Squad. Did you really? Remind me! When I'm not so busy, I'll try and read it :P
This is another chapter I've been looking forward to posting :D
Jessica opened the door to a whole host of demigods. Hazel had gone off to Camp Jupiter to help train up new recruits the following day. Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Nico followed Leo and Louisa home.
"I think I need a bigger house," Jessica remarked. Her living room was inundated with her mixed brood— the demigods had only added to Lizzie and the Entourage and there were no seats left. "Actually," she said, "I think I need a break. I'll be in my room. If you need me, don't. I'm having some me-time."
Leo was waylaid immediately. Mikey snapped his fingers, Connor and Dylan jumping up to grab Leo by the arms. They frogmarched him into the kitchen, Lizzie, Piper and Mikey following behind. Louisa started after them, stopped by Nico's hand on her elbow.
"Want to spar?" he offered. Louisa considered him for a moment. Was he distracting her from the kitchen or was he genuine? Did he want to spar, to spend time with her, was that it?
Nico jerked his head. "Race you to the roof."
"Last one there smells like a rotten egg," Percy challenged, shoving past them.
Louisa had a feeling Nico let her win. Percy, with his longer legs, did get there first, blowing triumphant raspberries when they finally emerged. Louisa stopped at the top, leaning on the door. Fuck, this wasn't good. She was really out of shape.
The wind swirled around them, bristling harshly and then teasingly, blowing in between strengths. A lock of hair twisted before her eyes. She slipped the hairband free and retied it. Since Piper had cut her hair, there was always one bit just that little bit too short to tie back properly.
Nico drew his sword. Louisa eyed him sidelong. She reached for her watch, her own blade materialising in her grasp. Her heart was still tripping a tattoo in her chest, though now not from her clamber up the stairs.
Her weapon felt awkward and unwieldy in her hand.
Nico raised his, the Stygian iron blacker than she remembered.
"En garde."
Nico had been watching her while they had played golf. Smiling, nodding along, attention flitting back and forth as she followed the sabotage and quarrelling within the group. She put up a front. He saw through it from miles off— it was the same front he put up too.
He knew her. He knew her like she knew him. He knew when he was looking at more forced smiles than genuine, knew when she had missed the joke and laughed along anyway, knew when she had been lost in memories unwanted rather than on the golf course with them.
He lunged at her, their swords clanging together. Percy stood to one side. They both knew Louisa needed retraining, knew she was far from her previous level. It was going to be gruelling, but that's what they were there for.
A second swing and her bronze-gold sword flung away. Nico pointed his at her chest. "Dead."
"Bastard," she said without any feeling. She held her hand out and her sword rubber-banded back to it. She was shifting, unsure where to place her feet, how to stand. A frown tugged at Nico's face and he went for her again.
Percy had been told Nico had a plan. He did not quite know what this plan was, but what he saw before him was not reassuring. He despaired when Louisa's sword flew from her grip a second time, clattering to the roof with a chilling ring. The wind ruffled through their hair and clothes. Louisa stared at her sword as it spun to a halt, pointing at her.
"Dead," Nico declared, sword at her throat. Louisa's eye twitched. She called her sword back, whacking his away. Nico parried and twisted, the weapon dropping to the ground between them. Louisa sighed, tipping her head away as the Stygian iron chilled her cheek. "Again," Nico ordered flatly. Louisa nodded listlessly, holding her hand out.
It was almost a minute before he disarmed her a fourth time. Thirty-two seconds when he disarmed her the fifth time.
Percy wanted to intervene. Nico had given him strict instructions not to, but that didn't stop his big brother instincts firing in all directions. Louisa couldn't keep her sword for long. Nico announced her dead twice more. A drop of rain struck Percy's cheek and he looked up. Wispy grey clouds were petering inwards, gathering overhead.
He did not like Nico's plan.
Nico looked up as Louisa recovered her sword again, electing to pick it up herself rather than magically summon it back. He touched his cheek, examining a raindrop on his fingertips.
Nico held his sword up. "Again."
He sprung forward the second she was ready. Something spurred him on, his sword a blur as his strikes increased. He swung wide and her sword arced away, the force of his blow turning her on her heel.
Nico slashed down and Louisa yelped, dropping to one knee. Her hand covered her calf, her hair tumbling from its tie, past her face as her head bowed. Her hand came away, trembling and ribboned with crimson. Percy started forward, Nico's hand swinging up to stop him.
Blood on her fingers. Thunder steeped in darkening clouds. Her leg throbbed where the wound wept, heart throbbing in her hand. The grey of the roof turned charcoal as the storm dispensed, the wind biting and parky.
Louisa looked up, head swimming. The roof they were on. Nico. Percy. Luke. Celestial bronze walls. No, storm clouds. No, chains.
Rising unsteadily, she called her sword back. Nico. Luke. Nico. Luke? She's on the roof. There's Nico, Stygian iron at his side. Rain hit her eye and she wiped it away, coppery tang smearing across her face. There's Luke, Backbiter flickering steel and bronze. Reddened water dripped from its tip.
"Nico…" Percy was waved away again.
"Trust me," Nico ordered. Percy hesitated. Nico glanced back at him, stern. "Trust me," he repeated firmly. Percy stepped back, hugging himself.
Nico disarmed her again, slicing scarlet across her forearm. She staggered, gripping the new wound, knuckles whitening. All colour had left her face, her dark hair slick against her skin. She staggered back, a swill in her breathing. Nico bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn't back down, not now.
Her eyes were wide, pupils pinpricks, darting about. What was she seeing?
Her sword came back. Nico sent it away again, the edge of his sword beading blood on her cheek. She flinched away. Both hands were bloody now and only added to the wound there, a sticky red handprint spotting in the rain.
He disarmed her again, marked her side. A neat rip in her T-shirt, a thin line seeping on her waist. Disarmed again, her thigh his next target.
She didn't even raise her sword for the next one, expecting him to send it away for the umpteenth time. Nico angered at this and lashed out. Not with his sword, but his foot, kicking her back, kicking her down.
She sprawled, landing heavily on her elbow. Percy cried out, Nico batting at the air to keep him back.
Louisa groaned, managing to get to her knees. Laboured inhalations. Minute puffs of breath blistering the dampened, bitter air. She manoeuvred herself, lifting one knee to put her weight on her left foot, ready to stand.
Her knee gave out and she toppled, hands thrown out to catch herself. Nico stood over her, tapping his sword on her shoulder. "Dead," he said. Detached. Cold. Louisa curled into herself, leaning on her elbows. She couldn't breathe, erratic convulsions spiking her chest. Oxygen deserted her. Her lungs were failing. Grey roof. Celestial bronze floor. Blood clogged her nose. Blood and dirt.
"You're dead," Luke said in her ear, said over her head, his sword white-hot on her shoulder. "Dead."
"Again," Nico ordered. Tears spilled onto her knuckles, wetting the drying blood.
"Dead!" Luke shouted.
"Again!" Nico kicked her in the ribs and she fell like a house of cards, gasping for air.
"Nico, enough!" Percy blocked the Stygian iron with Riptide. Nico scowled at him, at Louisa. "That's enough," Percy stressed, sea green eyes flashing dangerously. Nico grit his teeth, fingers constricting on the hilt of his sword.
"I told you not to intervene."
"How is this helping her? How?"
There was a shout behind them, a roar. Thunder cast aside all other sound. Percy was shoved aside and Louisa's sword fell towards Nico's head. He deflected it with a second to spare, forced to step back.
There she was. This is what he wanted.
Rage fuelled her moves. She screamed, wind blustered, thunder shook them to their cores. Puddles had formed and now they splashed through them. Nico could only defend himself, bronze-gold flashing around him like solidified lightning.
"What's the matter, Lou?" Nico taunted. She bellowed, swinging wide. Nico aimed for the hilt and disarmed her, cutting above her knee for extra measure. She came at him with her fists instead, cracking him across the jaw.
Nico staggered, tasting blood. He touched his lip, spat onto the floor. "Come on," he said with a smirk, "you're better than that. Again."
Her sword returned.
It was Luke, bearing down on her. Backbiter carved her flesh.
Her sword clanged as it smacked the perma-wonky aerial. It was Nico, demanding she picked it up.
Luke. Nico.
Nico. Luke.
"Again!"
Roof. Room.
Storm. Bronze.
Disarmed. "Dead! Again!"
Real. Fake.
Nico brought his sword down and she braced hers across her palms, sticky and slick with blood. The force of metal on metal jarred her arms right to her elbows and she felt her feet slide on the wet roof. Puddle water soaked into her sneakers.
Nico bared his teeth. "You're not even trying!"
"I am!" He pulled back and stabbed in, her sword dropping as her shoulder opened.
"Again then!" Nico countered hotly. Her sword returned and he knocked it away. "Again! Again! AGAIN!"
He swung at her stomach and she jumped back, narrowly missing. Her foot came down on her sword, the weapon skittering from beneath her as she went down. Nico loomed over her. Nico. Luke. She blinked, screwing up her face. She was on the roof. She was in the rain, her rain. That was Nico. Not Luke. This was real. Not fake.
Nico stood over her. His sword was aimed at her heart, an ache in her chest like it had already gone through. Her breathing came in thick, dry-mouthed gulps, shoulders heaving. The rain had turned into pellets. Nico winced as one hit his cheek, dashing it away irritably.
His dark eyes bore into her, jaw clenched. "What's happened to you?" he demanded. She scooted away, arms shaking as she battled to keep herself up on her elbows.
"Fuck off."
"I could never beat you before."
"Fuck off, Nico." She spat it out, seeing him and no-one else. Spat it between gritted teeth, fists clenching to back her warning.
"Nico, come on," Percy stepped forward, irritation flashing through him as Nico waved him again. He had no attention for Percy, only Louisa.
"You're not trying hard enough," he reprimanded. Her features contorted. Thunder rumbled.
"Shut up," she snarled. Nico sneered.
"Make me."
She was up, sword in hand. Bellowed in challenge, stabbing and slashing with the reckless abandon he had been pulling on. Metal rang on metal, rain spraying from their crossed weapons. Nico found himself on the defence again. He could not marshal an attack with his blade, but with his words… oh, yes, he could do that. "That's shit, Lou," he cajoled. "What are you going to do with that?"
Her sword caught him across the chest and he hopped backwards, splashing through puddles. He hardly had a moment to see the damage, raising his sword before hers cleaved his head. "Glorified back-scratcher," he continued. "May as well be a paperweight. Sloppy!" He swept his sword down and twisted, hers going with it.
She held onto it this time.
Nico didn't let up. "Sloppy!" he said again. "Slow! Rubbish! Dead!" She ducked to the side, his blade cutting the curve of her neck. "Again! Come on, Lou, again! What is wrong with you?!"
"I WAS FUCKIN' PARALYSED!"
Thunder rent the air. Rain slashed their skin.
The echo of her words carried through the weather. Nico watched the anger drain from her, sapped from her like a dying bulb. Her sword fell one last time, from numb fingers, and she sank with it, landing on her knees. "I was paralysed," she repeated. They had to move closer to hear her. A sob rose up like bile in her throat. "I couldn't move, I couldn't… I couldn't fuckin' move."
She started to cry. Nico put his sword away. She was kneeling in a puddle, water lapping into his jeans as he knelt before her. She cried into her hands, sobs wracking her diminished frame. Some of the wounds he had inflicted were healing beneath the rain, though blood still darkened her clothes.
"What happened?" he asked. She did not answer right away. Percy joined them, putting an arm around her. He glared at Nico, but Nico didn't care for that. He knew what it would have to take to get to this point. He knew what had to be done.
Louisa hiccupped, wiping roughly at her face. Blood stained below her eye and her cheek, the faint imprint of her hand splattered under the deluge. She dipped her hands into the puddle they were in, wheezing as she worked the blood away with her thumb and her nails.
"I tried to get out," she said shakily. "He… he broke my spine."
"You healed yourself," Nico said. It wasn't a question. She nodded anyway.
"Took ages. I… I don't know how long exactly, but…"
"Long enough," Nico finished for her. "You were home for, what? Two months? Then you had Bradley." She nodded again, inspecting her hands. There had been too much blood on her hands over the years, too much. She could not bear it anymore.
Nico bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Lou." She started to cry again, words falling away as tears welled up. Nico reached forward, hugging her about the shoulders. Her fingers grasped the back of his jacket.
He waited for her to let go first. Waited for her to cry herself into some semblance of a calmer state.
She looked at her brother. "Don't be mad at Nico."
"I am mad at Nico."
"Don't," she persisted. Percy turned on Nico.
"That was a stupid plan."
"That was a Louisa plan," Nico corrected. He was not bothered by Percy's anger, understood it. "One she's pulled on me many a time."
"Bastard," Louisa mumbled. Nico smiled weakly.
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Don't do it again," Percy warned.
The wind whistled and screeched around them, undecided on its tempo. Thunder rumbled again, though at a distant now. The storm was moving on.
Percy sighed. "Why don't we go inside? It's freezing out here and you're both half-drowned." Nico nodded in agreement, figuring he had pushed his luck enough today. Louisa shook her head.
"I'm gonna stay out here."
"You want me to stay with you?"
"No. Thanks, but… I just wanna sit on my own. Just for a bit."
"You'll shout if you need me," Percy worried, "won't you?" She nodded, managing a watery smile.
"We'll spar some more," Nico said as he got to his feet. "You need the practise." She snorted and told him to do something physically impossible, but she didn't disagree. Nico shared a look with Percy, who nodded.
"We'll train you back up, Lou," Percy promised.
"You'll be OK," Nico added.
"Thanks." Louisa wiped at her face again, squinting up at them both. Nico smiled at that familiar look in her eyes, knowing what was coming. "Now, fuck off. I'm sick of you people." Percy pursed his lips.
"Love you too."