safe || leo valdez x oc

eighty-six: nico di angelo gets schooled

NICO

~•♡•~

Nico was annoyed. He usually was. Nico was mostly annoyed at Cupid right now. The entire event had happened several days ago, and he still wanted to send Cupid's godly ass straight to the Underworld.

Nico was also annoyed at Aruna. She was trying to force-feed him random crap every chance she had, and it was getting on Nico's nerves. She was behaving like she was his mother- a mother with a very foul mouth and a very foul attitude.

Nico supposed he couldn't hate her for her personality, though. She wasn't all bad. She was better than most, really. Sure, she was brutally honest, willing to tell someone they were stupid or annoying, she didn't like the majority of the human population, and she had mood issues.

Nico didn't like that he had just described himself.

Aruna really hadn't been annoying before the trip. He'd actually enjoyed talking with her occasionally, right outside the Hades cabin. She'd been an outcast for a while, and while she didn't seem to like that, she also didn't force herself to fit in. She remained almost neutral about it- externally, at least.

She hadn't tried to force a friendship with Nico, either. She'd just randomly start waving to him, and he to her. Maybe it was because they both lurked around all the time. They thrived in the night. In the darker places, Nico and Aruna weren't afraid to delve in. He supposed it formed common ground for some sort of bond to form.

Over the course of a few weeks, when Nico was rarely at camp, he'd started talking to Aruna a little more. Mostly it was them muttering judgmental things about other people, and feeding off of that. Sometimes they were telling each other not to poke around a certain cabin because it was warfare.

"Oh, hey." Nico nodded.

"'Sup."

"Don't go over by the Nike and Iris cabins."

"Why?"

"They had some sort of competition, and Nike lost, so they're digging trenches over there right now and planting land mines."

"Oh. What was the competition?"

"I think it had to do with chess. I dunno. I didn't check."

"Oh. It's just as well. Nike needs their ass beat once in a while."

And that was the end of that.

What Nico didn't like, however, was how pushy Aruna was starting to become.

"Wassup, buddy?"

Nico rolled his eyes. Like usual, he was perched at the top of the foremast, his Stygian iron sword by his side. In the night wind, his dark hair ruffled, and his aviator jacket blew around. Aruna crawled up next to him, using her anti-gravity talents to do that trippy walk-on-walls thing.

She held a plate of enchiladas in her hands, but Nico grunted and shook his head.

"I'm not hungry."

Aruna sat next to him anyway, making sure not to touch him. Nico frowned as he looked at the empty space between them, and Aruna made careful work not to even bump her elbow with his. Nico figured it was unintentional. It must be. Aruna wasn't considerate.