The Son of Death in Gotham(A Nico Di Angelo Fan Fic)

4) Why? Why am I here?

*Trigger warning? Cursing and there are some pretty depressing thoughts in this chapter. I'll put a warning before and after them so that you can avoid them if needed and a summary of what happened after. Enjoy reading :)*

Will's Pov

Will didn't know what he was expecting when he woke up. But what he wasn't expecting was to be in the Hades cabin.

He sat up and looked around, wondering how he got there, when he noticed two things. One, he was in Nico's bed, the medkit still lay abandoned next to the foot of the bed. And two, there was a small figure curled up at the foot of the bed, covered by a black aviator jacket.

"Nico?"

The son of Hades jolted awake, looking around to find the source of the noise until his eyes rested on Will. He visibly relaxed.

"How are you feeling?" Nico asked softly, looking concerned.

Will was about to respond when all the memories from the night before flooded in. His eyes brimmed with tears, but he blinked them away, not wanting to cry about one lost life when the boy in front of him had been through so much already without breaking down.

"Hey," Nico put his hand on Will's shoulder. He looked uncomfortable with touching him but continued, "You can talk to me, you know that right?"

Will nodded, and after a few moments he was finally able to open his mouth again without breaking down.

"Something felt weird about it this time," He said, knowing that he wouldn't have to explain to Nico what he meant by 'this time', "Like... if I didn't save her, I would lose something important. That doesn't even make sense. I'd maybe talked to her twice, and that was mostly small talk and checkups."

Will was looking down, holding back tears as he talked, but when he looked back Nico looked almost... guilty?

"Will," the black haired boy looked away from him, "I need to tell you something."

Then Nico started explaining what happened at his family dinner.

*Time skip brought to you by my lazy butt and the fact that I don't have enough brain cells to explain all that again. Woo hoo!*

Nico's Pov

Nico looked down at his hands as he finished his explanation, telling Will what Thanatos had said to him and what he thought it had meant.

He couldn't bring himself to meet Will's eyes. He knew what he would see in them. Anger. Disappointment. Maybe annoyance. He would finally realize that being his friend was just too much, that it wasn't worth it.

They sat like that for a few minutes. Neither boy said anything. Until Nico felt the bed shift. Will had gotten up. He heard the door open and close.

He had left.

Nico didn't know why that hurt so bad. He had expected it, right?

Maybe he had wished that Will would be different. That he might not blame him. But now, Nico knows the truth.

Idiot.

Why did he have to open his mouth at that dinner? Why did he care about what Hades thought? Now he's lost his closest friend at camp.

Friend.

That was really what Will had become for him. Not just a healer. But an actual friend. And he just had to go and mess up that relationship like he messed up all of his relationships.

*Trigger Warning: Self Sabotaging thoughts*

Nico couldn't take it anymore, why was he even here.

I should have died in that jar.

Usually Nico would shake off thoughts like that. He would think about how Hazel would get mad at him for thinking that. About how Will would get mad at him. But now he couldn't help but think. Wouldn't they be better without me?

I'm just a mess up.

A mistake.

There was a whole prophecy talking about how I shouldn't have been born.

The fates have been messing up my life for a reason.

Why can't it just end already.

Nico would never kill himself. He couldn't do that to Hazel, who cared about him despite his wondering why. He couldn't make Hazel go through what he went through with Bianca, even if they weren't as close. But he still hated being alive sometimes.

*Trigger Warning End*

Nico basically just had a lot of depressing thoughts. Thinking things that would probably not be Will approved.

He spiraled like that for who knows how long. Until he thought.

What if I just escaped my problems for once? Escape the gods? It's not running away, it's... taking a break. Let me go to a place where I can be free for once in my life.

And he melted into the shadows.

*So I was gonna end it there, but it hasn't reached my work count goal(1200) so here's some more :)*

Shadow travel had obviously gotten easier for him since he first tried it. But after he went through that place, was trapped in the bronze jar for a week, and shadow traveled across half the planet with two people and a giant statue, it had gotten a lot harder.

So by the time he got wherever he was, he was exhausted.

He reached into his pocket, trying to find a drachma to Iris message Hazel, to tell her where he'd gone(he didn't want her freaking out, she cared about him for some reason), but all he found was a folded up piece of paper.

He unfolded it to see his drawing of Will. He remembered all the good things that Will had done for him. He'd healed him(against his will) after the statue incident, he'd always been there to cheer him up and get him to eat.

Nico couldn't even think about him right now without tearing up.

So he stumbled out of the alleyway he had landed in and started walking down the street.

He didn't know where he was, but it didn't seem like the nicest place to be stuck. Everyone kept to themselves, not talking to anyone but their company and keeping their guard high. And it reeked of death, this definitely wasn't a peaceful place.

A land away from the gods.

Well I'm fucked.

This might have unnerved most people but Nico was a demigod(I know right? What a shocker!) He was used to people being on guard, waiting for their next fight. Heck, Nico was more cautious than anyone he knew.

He walked down the roads, trying to find anything that could tell him where he was. He would ask one of the locals, but his social anxiety could never.

Eventually he came to a large building that Annabeth would probably love to see. It looked old but the style was nice. Nico didn't know enough about architecture to say any more than that.

In big letters above the entrance were the word's "Gotham City Public Library"

Great, just great.

While trying to get away from his troubles he had somehow ended up in one of the most dangerous cities in the US, drained of his powers. No money. And with only two things that he could use to defend himself.

This was one of the times that he was glad he'd started carrying around a silver knife. At least that could harm mortals without immediately banishing their soul to the underworld. No matter what some people thought, he didn't enjoy killing, to many consequences.

Nico headed into the library. So far it looked like the least dangerous place in this city. He headed to the back, avoiding people and staff, and sat down on a chair. He might not be able to sleep out in the open, but at least he could rest for a few hours. He pulled out his knife and hid it in his sleeve, in just the right way so that it wouldn't cut him, and he could pull it out in case the need arose.

He had a feeling he was gonna be in this city for a while.