New York (Nico and the Avengers)

30. Alaska

Nico's POV

Am I doing the right thing?  I know that she deserves to live, but she wouldn't want someone to die for her to live, and she wouldn't want me to kill someone.  Monsters are different, but she still didn't want me fighting and risking getting hurt.  And even if everything goes perfectly, will I be able to kill him?  He's not coming back, and considering what he's done he'll end up in the Fields of Punishment, can I really send someone to hell?  He hasn't done anything to me, but he has disrespected my father, and she died too young so him dying at his age wouldn't be sad.

No.

It doesn't matter that I don't want to kill, I owe it to her to bring her back, after all if I hadn't been so annoying she might not have joined the hunters, so she never would've been in that situation.  I have to bring her back to pay the debt.  No matter what the cost, I will see her breath again, and if I'm not an acceptable bargaining chip I'll get one that's actually worth something.  But if I'm going to find someone who can hide from the Gods I'll need to understand him and how he thinks.

A few hours of study later I come down for lunch.  No one's there so I decide to take my food back to my room, but I run into Bucky and Steve in the hallway.  "Hello Nico," Steve says politely.

"Hello," I say, "are you guys okay?"

Steve looks at Bucky before saying, "we're fine, you?"

"I'm fine." 

"Do you want to eat with us?" Steve offers.  I don't particularly want to talk to anyone, but I can see that they do.

I guess I can be nice, and it's not like I want to do more research, "sure."

When we walk in Steve grabs an ice pack and passes it to Bucky who quietly says "thanks."

"No problem, do you want another?"

"I'm fine."

"Would it help?"

"I'm fine." Steve backs down, so he probably knows that Bucky's really stubborn, or they've fought about taking care of him a lot.  Actually it's probably a bit of both.

"You should talk to Tony," I say even though I'm not sure it's true.  However I do know that leaving an argument unresolved just lets the fight fester and ends up hurting everyone more in the long run.

"I don't want to bother him, he needs to be given some space."

"And I don't want to risk Bucky getting hurt again."  they both made good points, but I don't let it go.

"If you don't talk you'll lose your connections, and it'll be harder to resolve in the future."

"I know, but we should wait at least a day.  Besides I don't want to bother him, I'm not going to go bother him until I know he's okay with being in the same room as me."

"Okay, I'll go ask if he wants to after lunch."

"But-"

"Relax, I'm not involved so he won't get mad at me." I say cutting him off.  "Don't worry, I won't push him." well I will, but not very much and I will back off if he really doesn't want to see them.

"Steve, if he wants to talk we should, I owe him that," Bucky says, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.  They seem really close considering what's been going on recently.  Just then Bruce walks in.

"Hey guys, how are you?"

"I'm fine," all three of us say at the same time as he looks up, startled we got our words to line up like that.  When he sees Bucky's bruises he stares for a second before turning his eyes away to try and avoid making him uncomfortable, but he's not quite fast enough.