Mira Patil: The Thief of the Gods

Confusion is Key

Ever since the big war between Gaia and the two camps, Nico had felt isolated. He had Will, of course, and, at first, everything was fine. The dark place that his mind had been in started to slowly disappear. He didn't wake up everyday soaked in his own sweat and panting from yet another nightmare. Though Nico was much happier than he had been before, most of the campers kept their distance and a wary eye on him. Everyone liked Percy, but no one could accept Nico. Nico knew that he had been a jerk in the years before, but, then again, Bianca had just left him. Even with all of the pain, he had been kinda awesome in the war, but that didn't stop campers from still being uncomfortable around him. Nico was, after all, the son of the big, bad Hades, who-he was pretty sure-ate souls for breakfast. 

All those years of being alone had made Nico unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel. While Will was a good post to be tied to, you need a fisherman to tie you to it. So, when Mira Patil had bumped into him, Nico was quite sure he had been dreaming. The end of the long tunnel was becoming clearer all because of this flustered individual who was clearly "not one of them." Mira had been the first person who had looked at him like he was a regular person, and not some kind of monster or divine being. To be clear, the look was mostly annoyance and a little bit of interest, but who was he to decipher her emotions? Nico was perfectly happy to keep walking and forget about her, but the light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer. He couldn't stop now! The genuine compassion in Mira's eyes made Nico's heart melt each time. And he absolutely HATED that! He already got enough of it from Percy, Annabeth, hell, the whole crew! On top of that, Mira had the audacity to go and sit with him at dinner and even offer to get-what was it called again?-biryani! (She claimed it was real food and Nico hadn't believed her until he had eaten it) Mira was making it VERY hard for Nico to not like her. 

Then there was Will, whom Nico still liked. Will had somehow taken an immediate liking to Nico and had been the only person that had stayed by his side through the months after the war. It was comforting, knowing that there was another person who was battling the monster called life with you. Which was why Nico had been a little excited to introduce Mira to him...that definitely did not go according to plan. He knew that Will could be an eensy bit over-protective at times, and he was bound to blame Mira for something that probably wasn't even her fault. She was the first person, besides Will, who had looked at him normally, and Nico wasn't about to let Will ruin it for him. Maybe lashing out at Will and leaving with Mira hadn't been the best decision, but Nico knew that Will wouldn't leave him behind, right? The guilt had weighed on his mood for the rest of the day. Nico promised himself that he would apologize to Will-

"Nico! Wake up! I have a bucket of ice hanging over your head!"

Nico woke up to find an orange Home Depot bucket hanging over his head. The bucket was covered in condensation and icy, cold water was making his hair wet. Before the bucket could tip over, Nico scooted out from under it and got out of bed to face the bucket person. To his utter surprise, Mira was standing there with the bucket dangling from her hand.

"Mira! How'd you get in my cabin?" Nico asked, becoming self-conscious about the pile of dirty clothes at the corner of his bed.

Mira stopped gaping and, putting the bucket down, said, "um...Rachel-whoever that is-is here. Annabeth told me to call you..."

Mira trailed off as though realizing Nico probably already knew about Rachel's arrival. Nico nodded absentmindedly and grabbed a shirt from his bed. As he slipped on his shirt, Nico realized he had been talking to Mira without a shirt on!

Thank you to my awesome editor/bestie for writing this chapter! Also, sorry about publishing late, I was busy fighting some asuras.

                                                                                                    Love you, The ORIGINALEPRINGLE