Sunshine Through the Clouds

Nico--Gods, I Hate Crushes

Sometimes darkness wasn't all that scary to Nico. In fact, he liked the calm stillness that settled over the camp at midnight, long after the other cabin's lights-out. The Big House wasn't emitting its usual soft glow; No light escaped from the forge or library or temples. Only the stars provided any illumination.

Nico wandered out to the front porch of the Hades cabin and pushed himself up onto the little railing. It wasn't super high off the ground, his feet nearly grazed the grass, but he felt closer to the sky. He twisted the sun charm around his wrist. Will left that morning, and although he didn't want to admit it, he missed Will. A lot. He was going to try and tag along in the Iris message Kayla planned on sending to him tomorrow morning, after breakfast but before any classes started. Of course, he didn't know how to casually pop in without raising any suspicions. They seemed like close enough friends, right?

Anyway, he had better things to do. The Hephaestus kids were doing their best to figure out why and how the lava wall 'malfunctioned.' Nothing yet. Nico had been talking with them, mostly with Nyssa because she didn't seem as afraid of him. He'd become convinced of foul play.

"Several bolts are missing, and they just-so-happen to be key ones. Bit suspicious, if you ask me," She said as he leaned against a pillar by the now-under-repair lava wall.

"Well," He began, "How long has it been like this?"

"Would've taken years to wear it down that much. So it was a while ago." That wasn't the best answer, but Nico was able to figure out enough and pick up on a bit of Spanish in the process. All in all, good day. Except for Will leaving that morning. He was right about people wanting to be his friend. Nico had managed to get along with lots of campers, more or less. It was easier than he thought, maybe even a bit too easy. He decided not to look into it too much.

The stars continued to shift overhead as Nico sat with his thoughts. Nothing was simple, almost everything required some form of effort, but thinking about whatever wasn't that hard. That is, until Will popped up in every single thought. Life as a demigod was complicated enough. Why did a stupid crush have to come in and ruin everything? Nico had come to terms with the fact that he liked Will, as if it wasn't obvious as hell, but seriously? He hated it. He hated himself. He hated his thoughts.

He went to bed in frustration and woke up angrily well-rested.

Nico kicked his bed and grumbled a little, partially because he missed Will and partially because of why he missed Will. Apparently, he woke up right on time for grumpily throwing on a shirt and jeans and heading out to breakfast. Of course, he was alone at his table. As if he expected anything else. Breakfast was pancakes, which seemed to happen a lot. Maybe Mr. D liked them? Maybe nobody knew how to make anything else? Maybe he was over-analyzing his meal? Nah.

He looked over at the nearest populated table to him, the Hermes table. Over there, people were laughing and telling stories while stuffing their faces. It was so complete and beautiful. Nico wanted to go over there, at least to have something to listen to, but couldn't. Chiron would call him out, and that would be even if the other kids wanted to sit with him.

No, can't think like that, he told himself, They might wanna talk. You never know.

Nico was startled by a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey," Kayla said. He spun around to look at her.

"Uh, hi." She smiled, which Nico didn't expect but fully appreciated.

"I'm going to IM Will in the Big House. Wanna come with?" He was surprised by how casually she offered, but she almost sounded nervous. There was a slight hesitancy behind her blue eyes.