The Best Of The Worst

CHAPTER 19

NICO

Will had been asking him questions in a soft, sweet, kind voice for quarter of an hour. 

Nico knew that they were all for a good cause, but he was feeling so attacked. He didn't say a word.

Eventually, Will gave up. He slumped next to him and cried. 

"I just want to know what's wrong." he gasped. "It's been a week since you talked to your sister know. A whole week! You haven't said a word that whole time!" 

"I'm..." Nico's voice came out raspy and quiet, a shudder going through it. "I'm so... so sorry..."

Will put a hand on his fiancé's cheek. "Don't be." 

Their foreheads touched, and tears ran down their cheeks and fell off their chins in unison. 

"Will... I l-love you..." 

Will moved his chin to meet up with Nico's right at the point, then kissed his lips softly. "I love you too. You are my sunshine."

Nico let out a soft laugh. "And you are mine."

They were sitting cross-legged on Nico's bunk, Will's bright hair obvious in the black wallpaper, all in a scruffy pile on his head. But Nico's blended perfectly with the rooms dark feeling, pitch-black, hanging over his face. Will wore his usual; a faded blue tank-top with wave patterns, khaki knee-length shorts and sandals. But Nico's clothing was all dark; a black t-shirt with a skull in the middle of the chest, his aviator jacket sprawled across him but not on, his black skin-tight jeans ending right at the edge of his army boots, not showing any of his white legs. It was a sweet sight. Will had a look designed with colour and effort to stick out, but Nico's was dark and effortless, designed to hide in the background.

Nico felt like every single time their lips touched, Will spayed some colour into him. Revived him a bit. But it would take a lot of kisses to get him breathing right again in his state. 

"What's wrong, Nico?" Will asked, snapping him back into reality.

"You wouldn't understand." Nico replied. 

"I can't if you don't let me." Will sighed. "I just want to help you."

"I know you are." Nico blinked away tears and swallowed. "I just don't want to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you're Mr Sunshine." Nico started to shout. "You only know one emotion; happiness. You have a burning passion for helping people, and setting things right. But you don't know about insecurity. You haven't felt true pain." 

"Nico-"

"No. Don't say that you understand. Don't say that you want to help. Don't say it. Don't try to force-feed me with hope. It won't work." 

Nico ran outside, leaving Will alone, and wiped away his tears as he sprinted to the woods. He slumped up against a tree, streams pouring down his face like a waterfall, and muttered to himself. "No-one understands me. They don't get it. They've never experienced anything like it."

He pulled headphones out of his pocket that were connected to his iPod, and pressed play. He put his music on shuffle. When he did, the first song that came up was 'Famous Last Words' by My Chemical Romance. He sang along, crying harder than he ever had before. He didn't understand. He didn't get what was happening in his head, so why should Will?

After what seemed like forever, when he was listening to 'Migraine' by Twenty One Pilots, the tree started to wither. Its branches went black and curled over, and he leapt up in surprise. 

"What the fuck?" he exclaimed.

"Migraine. Good song." his sister, Katie, said. 

"I'm guessing that you killed my tree?"

"Sorry..." Katie's black eyes turned back to green. 

"What are you doing out here?" Nico asked her.

"Emma and I came for a walk." 

"Where's Emma now?"

As if on cue, Emma came out from behind a tree and said "Right here."

As soon as she saw the wilted tree, she stepped over and healed it. It grew back to the grand size it was before. "There you go, di Angelo." 

Nico felt the trunk and sighed. He didn't really want to tell them, but he said 'my tree' for a reason. 

But Emma seemed to understand. "It's not the same, is it?" she whispered.

Nico started to cry again. "No. No, it really isn't."

"What's different?" Katie asked.

He didn't make a sound, but when he traced out where the love-heart used to be, the got it.

"I first date." he finally sputtered out. "I carved our initials into this very tree."

"Maybe if I..." Katie pulled her pocket-knife out of her jacket. 

"Sorry, but..."

"I get it. Sentiment."

They all walked to Hades cabin together in silence. When they got there, they saw a depression in Nico's bunk with a folded piece of paper right in the middle. Nico walked up to it and picked it up, unfolding and examining it. 

"It's a poem." he said.

"Oh. What does it say?" Katie asked.

Nico cleared his throat. "'Roses are red, violets are blue. If there's one thing I wish I understood, Nico, it's you. But the roses are dying, the violets lost a head. If I try to hard, I may end up dead.' He's always writing poems. It's a way he expresses his feelings." 

"That's sweet." Emma said, and both children of Hades looked at her like she's mad. "What? Poems are supposed to be romantic!"

"Plus," a man stood in the doorway, with rippling bronze muscles, a mop of blonde hair and sparkling teeth. "Like father like son."

"Apollo?" Nico gagged at the sight of his to-be-father-in-law. 

"That's right." the man said.

"What the fuck are you doing here? This is Hades cabin, not a gods hang-out zone!" Emma exclaimed.

"Yet the perfect place to find a daughter of Hecate." he replied, shutting her up. 

"But what are you doing here?" Katie said. 

"I want to talk about my son." Apollo replied. "You made him cry. And no-one makes little Willy cry."