Out Of The Shadows: A Solangelo Fanfiction Chapter 8: Chats and Nightmares

    The day after Leo’s message came, he got another knock on his door. He was expecting it to be Will again, but was surprised to find him opening the door to Piper.

   “Hello, Nico. I was wondering if we could have a chat?”

   “Uh, sure, I guess. Come in,” Nico replied.

   She smiled at him and sat down in one of the chairs. Nico took the chair across from her.

   “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to visit you in the infirmary. I got really busy being Cabin leader and all, and dealing with the aftermath, then Leo’s message.” Piper said. “But I’m not here to talk about myself. I want to talk about you.”

   Nico crossed his arms. “I didn’t expect anybody to visit me. But why are you here now? Why do you want to talk about me?”

   The daughter of Aphrodite smiled, her kaleidoscope eyes shining. They looked more brown at the moment. “Listen Nico, I didn’t really get to talk to you before on the Argo II, but I wanted to talk about your crush on Percy.”

   Nico’s eyes widened, like he was afraid he was going to get in trouble or get made fun of. “How do you know? Was it Jason? Damnit, I told him not to tell anybody!”

   “No, it wasn’t Jason. I’ve known since before you told him.”

   “What? Then how?”

   “Listen, I’m the daughter of the love goddess. I can tell things like that sometimes. I knew you had a crush on Percy while we were on the Argo II after we rescued you.”

   Nico scoffed. “Well, I don’t anymore, okay? I’ll tell you the same thing I told Jason. I was young and impressionable and I looked up to him. I’m over that. I’m happy for him and Annabeth.”

   Piper didn’t even flinch when he yelled, or when he moved his hands. She just kept smiling. “I realize that, too. I came here to tell you it’s okay to be gay. Love is love. We all know that many of the gods aren’t straight, and that just proves even more so that it isn’t wrong to love somebody of the same gender, and there are people you can talk to, including myself.” She stood up. “I have to go now. I hope your time in the infirmary went well.” She winked. “Just remember what I said, okay? Also, I’ll see if my siblings are up to help you with your cabin. See you around, Nico.” And then she was gone.

   Nico looked at his small figurine, the one that Percy gave him when he came back without Bianca. Nico remembered when his father found out that he liked Percy. It was kind of an accident.

   He was living in the Underworld, trying to figure out who his mother was, and what happened in his past. They were in the throne room, and Nico was talking to Hades about finding out about this, when he told Nico that he would give him information if he could trick Percy into coming down here.

   Without thinking, Nico shouted, “You have to promise not to hurt him!” He blushed furiously and wouldn’t meet his father’s eyes.

   Hades raised an eyebrow. And why does his safety matter to you? He got your sister killed, remember?”

   “Bianca said it wasn’t Percy’s fault. That she made her choice.”

   Hades still looked confused for a moment, but then it dawned on him. “Ah, I see.” He sighed. “Why Poseidon’s boy? He’s quite annoying. Though someone annoying can be quite charming sometimes, am I correct?”

   Persephone rolled her eyes in the throne next to his. “You can say that again.”

   Nico was covering his face at this point, and Hades just laughed. “It’s alright, son. I’m more concerned about who you have a crush on, not the gender preference. I’ve had male lovers myself.”

   When Nico thought that Hades agreed not to hurt Percy, he left to go hide in his room.

   Nico set down his figurine, and checked the time. It was almost time for dinner.

   As he was walking over to his table, Lou Ellen and Cecil ran over to him.

   “You didn’t show up to any meals yesterday or today! We wanted to see how you were doing.” Lou said.

   “I’m fine. I didn’t really want to come to meals, I was getting them before everybody else arrived, but I decided I would come to dinner today.” He secretly wanted to come to dinner mostly so he could see Will. He would be done working in the Infirmary for a while. Nico couldn’t believe he was doing this, though. With Percy, it was a lot of avoiding. He didn’t feel like doing that with Will, though. It was like being drawn to the sun. He wanted to avoid him, but he just couldn’t.

   “That’s great, dude! Hey, you wanna team up with my cabin for capture the flag? We’ll be playing in a couple days.” Cecil said.

   Nico rolled his eyes. He guessed that they wanted to be his friend, too. He didn’t understand why, but there was no point arguing. He had already tried that with multiple people, but it didn’t seem to work. Demigods are so stubborn. “Sure.”

   “Great! See you around, Nico!” They walked off to their respective tables, and Nico went to go sit at the Hades’ table. Alone. Like he usually liked it. But not anymore.

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   Nico couldn’t sleep. Nightmares suck. This time it was about his time in Tartarus. He had woken up in a cold sweat, screaming. After sitting in his bed while trying to get his breathing back to normal, he decided to take a walk. The harpies didn’t bother him.

   He walked out of his cabin and walked around the canoe lake, then trailed his way to the beach. It was comforting to hear the waves crash against the shore. It was quiet and dark and alone, just how he liked it. Or at least he thought he was alone.

   His eyes were closed and he was so focused on the sound of the waves that he didn’t realize someone had walked over until someone gently put a hand on his shoulder. He whipped around, almost jumping out of his skin. It was Will.

   “Can I sit here?” Will asked him gently.

   Nico nodded as Will took a seat in the sand next to him.

   “How are you out here without getting eaten by harpies?” Nico questioned.

   “I could be asking you the same question.”

   Nico shrugged. “The harpies don’t bother me. Probably because I’m a son of Hades.”

   “The harpies aren’t allowed to touch anyone who is working or staying in the infirmary who needs to take a break outside. Chiron made sure of that.”

   There was a long pause, and then Will took a shaky breath. “I just lost a patient. Sherman Long. We don’t even know what happened to him, he fell into a coma immediately after he was brought in, but now he’s gone.”

   Nico didn’t know how to console him. He knew pain. He knew death. But nobody was there for him.

   With a shaky hand, Nico put his hand on Will’s shoulder.

   “I really hate losing people, Nico. I really, really hate it.” He said, wiping tears from his face.

   “I know. But you can’t blame yourself. There’s nothing more you could’ve done. You already save so many people all the time. And it’s going to happen a lot more. And you can’t control that, either. But you will be able to save many of them. Many will keep living because of you. You make a difference.”

   Will looked up at him. “Thank you.” He wiped away the tears on his face. Nico removed his hand.

   “So why are you out here?” Will asked him.

   “Nightmares.”

   “I’m sorry.”

   They sat in silence for a long time, listening to the sound of the waves. As a couple tears fell down his face, Nico looked away so Will couldn’t see them.

   After a while, Will said that he had to leave to get back to work. “See you tomorrow, Nico. Go to sleep soon, okay?”