Nico Has Never Learned Anything -- A Solangelo Story

Chapter 6- Will's P.O.V.

-Thursday-

I stumble, before reaching out and putting an arm around Nico to steady him. Gods, I don't think I'll ever get used to shadow-travel, even after all this time of being with him and doing it a lot. We're at a Barnes and Noble right now to look for books Nico might like. Even if they're above his level, we can read them together and it'll help him get familiar with words or even into reading. I don't have a ton of money, but I should have enough for us each to get a few things. I've been saving back the money Mom sends and the money I get from camp.

I take a deep breath, trying to settle my stomach and my pounding heart. It only takes a moment of us standing here for me to get the forearm crutches out, holding them out to Nico. "I hope these don't bump into your sword."

He's got his sword on his hip, and I've got my knife and my bag with medical supplies in it. He thinks something is going to happen to us today, for some reason now more than ever. I think he's being dramatic, but if anyone's going to get attacked randomly, it's him.

Any god that can hear me, please don't let that happen, thank you.

"Ughh..." He groans, "No, it's fine."

"You sure?" I ask, keeping close until he gets his barings.

"...Should be."

"I can always carry your sword if it's in the way." I offer, since it's on his belt. That being said, I'm not really allowed to touch it, since it reaps souls and all of that.

"It's never been in the way before." He holds his hands out a bit and I help him slip the crutches on.

"I guess I usually don't see you with both." I shrug.

"How did you think I took them out when I'm, like, fighting things?"

"I imagined you just went wack wack wack with the crutches." I admit, swinging an imaginary crutch in the air as demonstration. Considering that he's told me he did that, he probably still does (hence why I've had to replace these for him once already).

"You told me not to."

"When has that ever stopped you?" I smile at him, moving away so he can actually walk to the store now.

He lightly hits the back of my leg with one. "Never has, and never will."

"Wa." I complain, side-stepping away and trying to get him on topic. "...What kind of books are we starting with?"

Like... topics would be a good place to start I think, then we can find exactly what he wants. What does Nico enjoy outside of mythology?

"I don't know. I have never heard of books. I don't even know what a book is."

"Really? This is going to shock you, cause we're about to go into a huge room of them." I say, going to the door and holding it open for him.

He goes in and looks around. "Oh, I'm terrified."

"Boo! Scary words." I chuckle as I follow behind him.

"They're scary when I get headaches, for sure," He says, "Where do we start?"

"Probably wherever-" Don't say kids books... "Eh, the books our level are."
He hates being called a kid for some reason, so I really just try to avoid saying it if at all possible.

"So let's start with the board books."

I chuckle. "No, not board books. We should probably look for... hmm." I see the bright sign that says kids, up the big escalators in the center. I point at it. "There."