Some nights were darker than most.

Will woke up with his heart pounding in his chest though there was no immediate danger within his line of sight. He lay still waiting for the dread to pass.

Nico was sitting up holding a long hunting knife in front of him. Will glanced where the wall safe had been. It was laying in the middle of the floor mangled like it had been ripped from the wall and twisted like a rag.

In the face of this fresh Tartarus, Will tried to figure their way out. The first problem was that he had his fingers around the blade instead of the hilt. The slightest touch was usually enough to bring him back to reality so Will brushed his clenched knuckles softly with his own fingertips. Nico's eyes slowly cleared.

"Want to give me the knife, Nico?"

"The knife?" He looked at it in shock and disbelief. He looked at the ruined safe. He dropped the knife onto the comforter. "Are you hurt?"

"You're worried about me," Will said wistfully. "What scared you so much that you did this?"

Nico didn't answer right away. Instead he got up and started putting clothes into a duffel bag. "There was an air raid siren." He looked at himself in the reflection on the closet doors. He would never be comfortable with the idea that it happened a hundred years ago. "We were in DC by that time so it was a drill or false alarm. I don't really remember. My mom had a hot gun because the women at the factory she worked at made weapons for themselves when no one was paying attention. She gave us knives just in case we had to defend ourselves against the invaders. We might not have been safe even if they looked like us." A beat passed. "Actually that might have made it more dangerous."

Will got up, feeling completely useless at the moment. "So you're just leaving?"

"Would you forgive me if I stabbed you in your sleep?"

"Hypothetical. You'd never hurt me." Nico shook his head in frustration and zipped the bag up. Will grabbed one of the handles to stop him. "Talk to me, please. Tell me more about DC in the thirties."

"What's there to say? My mother sold secrets to the U.S government for protection. Otherwise we would have been executed for being from an enemy state. As if being an immigrant was bad enough back then. I don't even want to know what it would be like if I had grown up and fallen in love with another man." He tried to pull the bag free but Will didn't let go.

"Fine. The Blitz was on going on at the time and even if it was just a malfunction the threat was real. Everyone was scared and we would have been excellent scapegoats for the panicking crowd, if she hadn't thought quickly enough. Even back then, I knew they wanted our blood. There was no such thing as safety even if it was safer than Italy under Mussolini. And you know, the soldiers looked so sharp and fearless in those uniforms that I just couldn't stop staring at them. I've never been good for anyone."

The bag fell to the floor. "Let me clean your hand, okay?" Will slid his own bag of medical supplies from under the bed.

"What if I never get better? It's been decades since the war with Gaia."

"You try everyday. That's what you do."

"It's that easy then?"

"Yes." Will blew gently on it as the alcohol dried. "I want you to go to the clinic later for a tetanus shot. It's pretty deep so I want to watch it for signs of blood poisoning too."

Nico remained stoic as Will finished dressing it. One less in tune might think he felt no pain at all. "We had some protection from the government because of what she knew. She was the daughter of a high-ranking diplomat and had ties to Mussolini himself. But it wasn't enough. Some of them found ways to attack us anyway. "

"But here you are, alive and married to another man. There are no planes coming to level the city block. Mussolini's regime is long gone."

"Eventually Hades figured out how dangerous it was for us. His other kids kept him busy most of the time but he found a way to stay close because it kept the mortals at a distance. This angered Zeus and you know the rest.

And that's why I took out the safe like it was made of cardboard instead of reinforced steel." He tapped it with his foot but it didn't budge. "We're going to have replace this and reimburse the hotel for damages."

Will tied off the bandages. "I want to examine it more later. You might need stitches. I'm not afraid of you, Nico."