Misery Loves Company

Shadows & Threats

Lou Ellen's suitcase was sat beside the door when he woke to the sound of eggs frying. Will had slept on the couch, giving his roommate his bed for the evening, in favour of keeping watch in the living room.

He'd fallen asleep for a few hours, plagued by nightmares he was eighty percent certain Nico was sending him, revenge for trapping him in a coma with his own dreams, then trapping him in a 70sqm flat.

Lou Ellen, noticing he was awake passed a plate of eggs and toasted sourdough, smiling lightly.

"I'm about to head off, I was waiting for you to wake up."

Will opened his mouth to reply, but was quickly stopped by the sight of Nico phasing from Lou Ellen's bedroom through their living room wall. His jaw hung open.

"Leaving so soon?" Nico wore a faint smile, hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket as he solidified again.

"My dad's got a new girlfriend in his life, wants me to meet her. I'm staying with them for a couple days." Lou Ellen lied smoothly.

Nico nodded, though Will's gut whispered that the son of Hades had caught the lie with ease. But Nico made no move to stop Lou Ellen from leaving as they headed for the door. He just stood watching, leaned against the wall as if without a care in the world.

His roommate gave him a brief hug, a whispered "Good luck" and with a last suspicious look toward Nico, grabbed their suitcase, pulling the door ajar.

"Enjoy your time with your family." Nico said before they could depart, voice low. "I'm sure there will be no reason to mention me, but just know that if anyone in New Rome hears of my presence and comes knocking on that door...no shadow will be safe for you."

Lou Ellen blanched, the threat ringing clear as daybreak. Their eyes flicked to Will's as they nodded, dragging their suitcase into the hall and shutting the door with a firm click.

"You didn't kill them." Will remarked.

"Not yet." Nico shrugged, walking to the kitchen and pulling the pantry cupboard open.

"Help yourself to whatever you want." Will said, digging back into his own breakfast, which he almost choked on when Nico's arm reappeared from the pantry carrying a plate of steaming pancakes swimming in maple syrup.

What in the Hades?

"How does that work exactly?"

"My stepmother has become concerned for my eating habits these past years, so she has directed the palace's kitchen staff to make extra of each meal and leave it in the shadows." Nico paused his explanation, burning a small piece of pancake in the prayer candle Lou Ellen had supplied them, murmuring a brief prayer, before resuming. "Then I just summon it."

"How do you know it's there?"

"I just do..." Nico non-answered, "How do you know where someone is hurt?"

"I don't know, it's just natural."

Nico nodded, "Same thing."

He held a hand underneath his plate, where it cast a round shadow on the kitchen bench and Will's phone appeared in it. His phone which he had left charging under his bedside table...in shadow. Nico just handed it over, demonstration complete.

He took a seat on one of the stools around the kitchen island, his back to Will, his dark wings on display as he began to eat.

"You never used to do that." Will said, desperate to avoid that awful echoing silence that threatened to fill the room.

Nico doesn't look back over at him, "Do what?"

"Willingly turn your back to someone." The comment earns him a flicker of movement, Nico's wings shuffling as if on reflex.