How Do You Say Gods- Titan's Curse

14: I HAVE A DAM PROBLEM

The countless victims of the oceans waters slowly vanished one by one as Nico got his breathing back under control and went lax, blinking slowly, feeling how tight every muscle was as he slowly unwound, but more surprised than anything Oceanus wasn't back in here to yell at him for blowing up his kingdom the second time in one day.

Nico felt light, almost light headed as he coughed and leaned back from the warm embrace just to sit up.

Will sat all the way back though, still watching him with those open blue eyes of concern, but a faint blush on his cheeks again. Nico felt almost unreasonably warm around the collar, which was strange as he usually felt cold flashes after using his powers in such abundance. He hoped Will hadn't hurt himself by trying to heal him.

Nico coughed into his sleeve one more time and looked away at the others. Two things he'd been holding onto so tightly in here were just out in the open now. It was still an odd revelation to him, trying to find peace with his sister's death rather than hyper focusing on some new task.

He'd never felt so vulnerable, sitting there waiting for all of them to scream like a phantom had just crawled out of his skin, he'd felt the ghosts he'd summoned fading back away. There was no hiding it now, and he was just content to not want to, whatever their reaction.

"Nico," Percy spoke up first, the weight of his own guilt now back full force. Nico still looked at him, his hero, and knew what he was going to say next. The same thing he'd said to him that cold December day he'd come back from his quest with Annabeth safely home. He was going to justify her death by promising it had saved the quest.

He knew that now, he swallowed and accepted it, but it didn't mean he had to like it as he walked out of the room.

He didn't know where he was going, he never had the moment he left that pavilion. He'd wanted his sister back, and Minos had manipulated him while Bianca and his own mother never answered him. He'd wanted control over his powers, and still as he'd just proven he was useless at that too.

Jason didn't need his help, he could have anyone take him to that other camp, someone like the Son of Poseidon or the Daughter of Zeus who would be welcomed with open arms rather than the mistrusted son of Hades.

Going down into Tartarus had to be the answer. He'd find a weakness of Gaia, something irrefutably good.

"Nico?" Will's gentle voice surprised him. He jumped and missed a step, he hadn't even meant to go up to the roof. Now he found himself nearly falling into a dark abyss of a whole chunk of stairs missing before a hand snatched out and caught his wrist, supporting his balance before he could topple to the crumbling bottom of the ocean.

"Sorry," Will said, instantly dropping his hand. The warmth had once again seeped right through Nico's jacket, and he was starting to feel paranoid why Will kept constantly trying to heal him. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted a break for the day, get some sleep? I'll go, if you want to be alone."

Nobody had ever come after him before. Bianca, Percy, he'd been abandoned by everyone he ever would have wished to be right here except this strange guy from camp he'd spoken to maybe a dozen times before they were thrown into this place.

"I don't know what I want," he admitted. He still didn't seem aware his own shadow was overlapping him more than his jacket, as if some part of him were still trapped in them trying to draw him into safety. Away. That he couldn't reach right now by the Titan's power Nico and Percy together seemed determined to press to its limits.

Will nodded and seemed to take that as an answer as he slowly began backing away. Nico watched for a few steps before he quietly admitted, "I like talking to you. It's, distracting."