north

vii, wrung

The sun set behind them. He stood beside Reyna, facing Nico di Angelo and a young girl with dark skin and golden eyes. "I am advocating for my sister, Hazel, and her allowance into the legion. She's a child of Pluto, as am I. I've proven myself trustworthy to you both, and I ask this favor in return for my senate service."

Reyna regarded Hazel with a curious eye. "To be clear, we rescued you, Ambassador. And isn't your senate service voluntary?"

"You mean, you took me in because you were afraid of how many times I'd defeated your fellow praetor," he smirked at Jason, "and you'd rather that force be with you than against you."

The girl, Hazel, looked nervous. A few shimmery stones popped out of the ground near her feet. She didn't understand the cold humor Nico and Reyna shared. He sent her a smile he hoped was reassuring and the stones sank back into the ground. When the staring contest between her brother and Reyna ended in curt laughs from them both, all the tension left her shoulders.

"I'll have to talk to the senate, of course, but it should not be an issue."

"Because if even if they don't trust you, they're scared of crossing you by refusing your family," Jason supplied, causing Nico to scowl, though the fondness in his eyes betrayed him. "But more importantly, they're scared of Reyna."

"You're strangely accepting of getting your ass verbally kicked to the curb. Guess your battle 'training' follows you off the field, too," Nico hummed. That garnered a snort from Reyna and a stifled, unsure laugh from Hazel.

"We'll see about that. The arena awaits, di Angelo."

Reyna calmed them all down with a wave of her hand. "Enough. Hazel Levesque, come with me. You've nothing to fear. You can stay in your brother's quarters until we can get you settled with your cohort."

"Thank you, praetors," she said, golden eyes beaming. She had a brief word with Nico, squeezed his hand and shared a smile, then went off with Reyna.

Once they were gone, Nico's shoulders sagged with relief. He let out a long sigh. "Thank you," he said sincerely to Jason. If the praetor remembered, he knew Nico had a sister, and knew how important she was to him. He longed for that kind of closeness with family. He felt there was something deeper going on in this situation, but he didn't push. He knew better than to force Nico to open up. "You don't know what this means to me."

Jason believed him. "Well, now that you owe me one, will you finally let me beat you in a match?"

"If you're asking that, you've already lost."

They headed for the arena, cheerfully taunting each other the whole way. Jason tried not to bring up any of the questions burning in him. It included Nico's sister's sudden appearance after such a long time and his whereabouts during and after the war.

"I was visiting some... friends," he supplied uneasily, stumbling over his carefully chosen words.

"Hope we didn't steal you away too soon," Jason said. They had sent an eagle scout to seek him out after their successful assault on Mount Othrys. Okay, Jason sent the eagle. He missed him and wasn't sure whether or not Nico was actually alive after the war.

He spent two sleepless weeks milling around Pluto's temple, praying to their fathers, ignoring his newly given duties as praetor. It was the first night of the middle of the third week when Nico walked in. Or rather, he trudged in, laden with wounds that Jason already knew time would struggle to heal. The moment they laid eyes on each other, the sadness vanished.

He didn't know whether or not to hug him or punch him for making him worry so much, for keeping him up all those nights, for not telling him where he was, not taking care of himself--He's so thin, he's gotten paler, he looks so tired--but Nico made the decision for them both.