They're What?!

A Little Bit of Bonding

Nico took the job of explaining the whole 'dead come back to life' deal to the school.

Well, he said he did anyway.

When the time came, he had just stood up and said. "I pulled some favors with some very powerful people. If you ask about it I'll have to kill you."

Annabeth facepalmed. She heard one of the men in the group of wizards, the one named Sirius, whisper something to one of the others about 'liking this kid.'

Headmistress McGonagall had come up to the group after the announcement, hugging most of the group. Pettigrew had only gotten a hard stare.

Jason and Piper took charge of showing the new demigods around the makeshift training arena they'd constructed throughout the castle. The others returned to their stations and tried to carry on with training the students.

Except for Annabeth.

It took Nico almost an hour to find her, once he had realized no one else knew where she was.

"Hey Annabeth."

She didn't say anything, so Nico sat down next to her, looking at his hands. He'd never been good with consolation, in any way, and this situation was, he supposed, sort of his fault.

"I guess I'm the selfish one." Annabeth finally said, looking up at the cloudy sky.

Nico looked at her, but didn't say anything.

"I just wanted something normal after the war."

"I think everyone did." He said quietly.

Annabeth nodded. "Oh I know. I just... Percy and I have gone through so much... and I know you have too, Nico, I'm not trying to belittle-"

"No, I get it." Nico shook his head. "I wanted it. Will wanted it. I think all of us, everyone who made it through both wars, was just hoping for a minute of peace before something else came and blind-sided us into oblivion."

The daughter of Athena sighed and chucked a pebble into the water. Nico watched the ripples move outward until they disappeared.

"You know, Percy... He wanted me to pass on a message."

He wasn't sure how else to address the subject, but he knew it had been Percy's main concern before going under.

Annabeth looked up at him. "Let me guess." She smiled wryly. "He loves me more than anything?"

Nico had to laugh a little. "Yeah, there was that. But also..." he pulled a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket.

Percy's handwriting was by no means neat, but Annabeth smiled when she opened the note and read what he had written inside.

"Does that ease your worries a little bit?" Nico asked quietly.

Annabeth chuckled. "It did, in a way. He's got no way to ensure that, but..."

Nico didn't push it. If Annabeth wanted to tell him, she would.

"Can I ask you something?"

He raised his eyebrows and looked at her. "You know, usually you don't give me that option."

Annabeth smiled a little. "You always have an option, Nico. Usually most people don't even get to the point of asking with you."

"So why doesn't my natural demeanor of cold ruthlessness deter you?" He asked sarcastically.

She laughed. "Percy used to talk about how you were when you were little."

Nico tensed. He knew what she was talking about. "That kid is long gone, Chase."

"Easy, Nico. I get it. You went through a lot. But knowing that you were like that at one point usually keeps me from being too worried about you cutting my head off."

He sighed and leaned back on his hands. "So what did you want to ask me?"

"Did you and Will have plans?"

Nico turned slightly to look at her. "That's rather personal."

"So is this but I bet you read it." Annabeth held it up, shrugging.

Nico gritted his teeth, but nodded. She wasn't wrong.

"You don't have to answer. I just figured you might like to talk about it."

"I guess... I share mine you share yours?" Nico suggested after a moment.

Annabeth smiled, tucking the paper away. "Sounds good to me."

Nico nodded and looked up at the clouds. He could see things moving in them, and he didn't want to think about what they might be. Nevertheless, he let his gaze follow one of them 

"Yeah, we had plans. We talked about them... a lot, actually. It was Will's favorite way to get me to eat, or do some other healthy activity that he wanted me to do so I could... get better, I guess? He'd get me talking and soon enough we'd be doing something and I'd hardly be paying attention to it because... gods, I felt happy."

Annabeth nodded encouragingly. "That's great."

Nico chuckled a little. "Yeah... my favorite was when we'd start talking about after college, if we made it that far...."