When Worlds Collide

14) Who's Gonna Take Them Out of the Oven?!

A/N: another long one. also, in case you couldn't tell, I really like Nico and Leo's friendship

Nico stepped out of the shadows outside of the mechanic shop that Leo and Calypso ran. Usually he would have gone to camp, but he didn't want to have to explain what happened and Leo had always been good about letting him process things in his own time.

He walked up to the garage door and pounded his fists on the metal.

"We're closed on Saturdays!" Leo's voice said on the other side. "Come back tomorrow!"

"It's me, Fire Boy!" Nico called back.

There were some sounds of shuffling before the garage door slid open and there stood Leo, hands covered in grease and smiling. "Come on in Death Boy."

Nico slipped under the half opened roll-up door, Leo closing it behind him, and sat at one of the stools by Leo's work bench. "What new invention you working on now?"

Leo chuckled as he picked up his smelting equipment, handing Nico a mask first, before getting to work. "Just the controls for the Argo III. Nyssa says it's almost ready."

Nico nodded, silently watching as he welded the pieces together. One thing he liked about being around Leo was that neither felt the need to fill the silence. It wasn't until Leo finished his work and the sun began to set that either spoke again.

"Wanna talk about why you're here?" The Latino asked as he began putting his gear away.

"No," Nico said, taking off his smelting mask.

"Should you?"

Nico sighed. "Probably."

Leo let out a chuckle, waving for Nico to follow him as he left the garage and headed upstairs to the attached apartment. "Well Caly is out meeting with some of the Saytrs from the surrounding areas if you want to let it out before she gets here. If not, then we're having enchiladas tonight and the guest room is free."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "I thought you had that kid staying with you? You know, Kyle, or Keith, something like that. The one that I think is an Athena kid."

Leo nodded as he began pulling ingredients out for dinner. "Kia, and he moved to camp last week. He decided he wanted to meet the other half-bloods. He's almost 13 so he should be claimed soon."

Nico nodded. "Remember Gio? The kid whose parents are from Italy?"

Leo nodded. "Yeah, he get claimed yet?"

"Yeah, a few months back. Mr. D came back from Olympus, saw him, and just said 'mine' before patting his head and walking off. Chiron got mad at him, saying that it wasn't the proper way to claim a child, but Geo seemed fine with it. He was glad to move out of the Hermes cabin."

"That sounds like Mr. D. Pollux is still at camp, right? He's, what, 19?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah, he's still there. I think he's glad to not be the only one in his cabin anymore."

Leo nodded, mixing his ingredients before glancing at Nico. "I didn't forget about what you're avoiding by the way. If you don't want to talk about it, that fine, just say so, but you can't just change the subject."

Nico was quiet for a moment, just watching Leo prepare food, before he finally let out a sigh. He hadn't told anyone at camp except Will, Reyna, and Percy about what fully went down before he died. "Know the bad guy who made the celestial collars?"

"Yeah, Heatstroke."

Nico shrugged. "Close enough. Before I died, I killed him."

Leo paused and looked up at him surprised. "Like... killed him  killed him? Like sword through the chest, chop off his head?"