The Legend of Nico and Will

Chapter Sixteen

Special: Percy's point of view

Look, I didn't want to – oh no, sorry, wrong story. Let's start again.

It was awkward. And I mean like, really awkward. Nico and I never had gotten along that well. But I wasn't prepared for what he said to me that day.
"You're not my type", he'd said. And Annabeth had really high fived him. She had started to giggle as soon as Nico had walked away.
"Did you know?" I asked her.
"No. I always thought he liked me", she answered. "I think everyone thought that." Annabeth smiled at me. "I'm glad he can accept himself. And that he found someone who's better for him than you are."
"Excuse me? Who is better than me?"
"Oh, you're the only one for me, seaweed brain. But I think Nico's type is a certain son of Apollo."
I looked at her, confused. Then it dawned on me. "Ooooooh! No way! That Solace guy?"
"That son of Hermes, Cecil, told me. They were flirting the whole time. And –" She looked around as if someone could hear us. "Will also was the one that made Nico stay."

But then we had that conversation. And he told me all those things. All those things that were true.
Now, Nico finally cleared his throat. "Sorry. I was being pretty harsh back then."
"Hey man, you don't need to apologize. You're right with what you said."
He scrunched his nose. "Yeah, but still. I shouldn't have gotten that angry."
I laughed. "I've seen you angry before. Remember the time I came home from that quest?"
"I also have to apologize for that. Bianca... that wasn't your fault. And it was wrong of me to make you promise that... you know."
I sighed. "Nico, you were ten. And you had just lost your sister."
"Let's agree that we've both made mistakes."
"Yes. So... We're good now?"
"We're good now."
I laughed, relieved. "Do you think Will did that on purpose? To put us on the same position so we just had to talk to each other?", Nico asked.
"Maybe."
He sighed.
"Oh, don't pretend to be annoyed, I know that you two are practically marrie- hey, what's that?"
Nico had spotted it too. Something was fluttering in our direction. He climbed the next tree (he was surprisingly strong) and caught it. He jumped down (where had he learned to do things like that?) and gave me the thing. It was a parchment scroll. I unrolled it. A three-inches-tall hologram of Leo Valdez himself appeared.
Nico gasped. "What the –"
"Shhhh!", I said.
"Hey, guys!" Leo spread his arms like he wanted to give us a hug. "Sorry to leave you like that. Bad news: I died. Good news: I got better! I had to rescue Calypso. We're both fine now. We're taking Festus to –" The image seemed to be broken, so I couldn't quite understand Leo. "Back as soon as - cook tacos when - ¡Vaya con queso! Love ya!"
Nico and I were silent. For a long time. Then, Nico suddenly screamed: "THAT SON OF A BI –"