Anti-Hero || Leo Valdez

31 - I Lived Bitch

It was past curfew, almost midnight, when Nico and Will returned. Apparently they'd been held up by traffic on the way back. Via couldn't believe it had taken them hours, but she supposed that was New York City for you.

Via had never seen much of Nico after his sister had died during his first week at Camp. He preferred to keep to himself, and the campers gave him his space. Via never understood why Will had such a huge crush on him. She just wasn't really into emo guys like he was.

They turned up in a limo being driven by a zombie chauffeur, which seemed metal as fuck, and Nico and Will hopped out, looking like the opposite sides of a coin. Nico was wearing an aviator jacket over a black skull t-shirt and ripped jeans, while Will wore a flannel shirt on top of his camp t-shirt and khaki shorts, despite the fact that it was wintertime and would most likely be freezing in Manhattan.

Immediately after the zombie limo disappeared, Nico froze and looked around, his gaze landing straight on Via. He'd probably sensed her, though he might've thought the death energy was coming from his zombie chauffeur. Will frowned in confusion and looked where Nico was looking. He looked surprised to see Via and started to grin, then seemed to realize she was a ghost.

"Via?" he asked. "What — what happened to you?"

"It's a long story," Via said for the billionth time. "Um, so basically I have this blessing from Helios and a dead Roman Emperor in Indiana wanted it so he tried to extract it from my soul except it didn't work and now I'm stuck like this."

"Are you here to see me?" Nico asked.

"Um, yeah," she admitted. "Leo brought me here because he thought you might be able to help me figure out what to do. He's asleep right now, but —"

"Your name's Via?" Nico interrupted.

Via frowned, confused. "Yes."

"Short for Olivia?"

"Yes. So does this mean you can —"

"What's your last name?"

Via tried not to get frustrated with the guy who was trying to help her. "Ilzarbe, what does this have to do with —"

"Be right back." Nico melted into the shadows, leaving Via and her half-brother staring in surprise at the spot he'd been in.

"He shadow-traveled to the Underworld," Will told her helpfully.

"Um, yeah, I figured as much," Via replied. "But why?"

"No idea," Will said cheerfully. Via resisted the urge to facepalm.

"So..." she tried to prevent them from slipping into an awkward silence.

She had no idea how long this was going to take. It felt awkward talking to Will again after so long. She felt like a long-lost cousin at a family reunion. Despite the fact that it had barely been a year since she last saw him in person, she felt like they'd both changed a lot and didn't really know each other anymore.

"So, Nico, huh?" She asked him, smiling. "You finally asked him out."

Will grinned bashfully. "Yeah, I did."

"How long have you been dating?"

"Tonight we were actually celebrating our eight-month anniversary."

"What? Eight months already, and you never told me?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to keep you in the loop when you drop off the grid. You tell me that you and Pat are heading back home to Dallas and then after eight months of radio silence I meet you as a ghost and find out that you died in Indiana."