See My Shadows, I'll Be Your Light

Will

BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER!!!

I WANT TO DEDICATE THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS TO MY TWO MOST ACTIVE READERS: HappyMe078 and solangeloshit34 THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS LOVE YOU!!! IF ANYONE ELSE WANTS TO BE MENTIONED COMMENT!!

NOW ON WITH THE STORY...

Poor thing. He couldn't even sleep without being disturbed. I sat next to him while he rested for a while, then I got up and got back to working with the other patients. I wasn't worried about school- they often let me take days to work in the infirmary. I bandaged a young girl's arm and looked outside. It was December now. About 2 weeks until New Years. A lot of student went home for the holidays, but I never did. Not since my mom passed. I didn't know her that well, but I remember I was 5 when she sent me away. She always came home late and had no time to take care of me. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be for me if I had known her the way Nico had known Bianca. So I had spent the last 11 years at Athena's, and I didn't mind. I leaned on the window. A small black dot was rushing towards the infirmary. It got bigger... Percy?? He ran over and burst in.

"Hey Percy. What's wrong?" I asked him, a little confused. He seemed fine.

"Nothing. Why would you think that?" Percy tilted his head.

"Well, people usually come to the infirmary when they're hurt or something happened."

"Oh! Haha. Nah, everything's fine. They all told me you were here, so I just came to deliver some news. But I have to get back to class, so I have to hurry."

"Oh. Ok. What is it?" I was curious now.

"Ok so you know how Christmas is in like a week? And so me and Annabeth and Piper and a few other people asked Chiron if we could have a kind of celebration this year and I guess we kinda begged but anyway," he paused to catch his breath. "We're going to have a Christmas dance!! With like dates and everything." His eye caught Nico behind me and he smirked slightly. "I gotta go. See you soon?"

"Yeah, sure. Thanks." I smiled and waved as Percy jogged out of the building. A dance?! Ohhh no. We hadn't had a dance since I had come. I was not looking forward to it. Besides, there was nobody I liked enough to ask. I decided to do something else to take my mind of it. I opened my medical drawer and took out a piece of lined paper and a pencil and started to write. I wasn't sure what I was writing- it could have been a song, or a poem. I didn't know. I just let the words flow through my hand and onto the paper. I didn't think about what I was writing- it just came to me, like Nico's art. I looked down at the words on my paper after a minute and even though nobody was watching me I immediately blushed like crazy. Maybe I did like someone enough to ask. Not that I would, no way. There was no way he would even consider liking me back. I sighed and folded the paper, sticking it into my back pocket. Nico stirred and woke up.
"Nice timing." I said aloud. Nico yawned and replied sleepily,

"What?"

"Nothing." I quickly responded. Nico sat up and stretched.  "What time is it?"  I checked my watch.  

"It's only, like, 3:00. You've been sleeping for 4 hours."  Nico yawned.

"Can I leave then?"  I was hurt, even though I knew he wasn't pointing his comment at me.

"Yeah. Sure, it's been three days, hasn't it?"  He kicked off his covers and stepped out of bed.  Then he looked at me expectantly. 

"Do you have any patients today?"

"My last one just decided he was better." 

"Great. So what do you want to do? I assume classes have ended for today, so no point in going back to school..."  My mouth turned upwards in a slight smile.  He wanted to hang out with me!!

"That's right. There was somewhere I didn't show you before... come on!"  He nodded and followed me back the way we went a month ago, before Nico's injury.  His hands in his pockets, he stared at the snow crunch beneath his feet as we walked.  Shiny black hair fell from his forehead and down into his eyes and he blew them away.  He was truly adorable.  I didn't even notice that we had made it to the library.  I stopped before the tall stained glass windows and gestured for Nico to follow me inside.  

"Helllooo, William!" Rachel, the oracle and dubbed librarian waved to me.  She spent a lot of her time with the books reading about ancient prophesies and had practically memorized the way the library was organized and where everything was.  Almost everything, I mean.  

"Hey, Rachel! This is-"

"Nico! Nice to meet you. Finally.  Not many students take 2 months to go to the library." She winked.  "I'm Rachel, the oracle of Delphi."  

He nodded.  "Hi." Then he turned to me, grinning. I almost did a double take.  "This place is huge." I nodded, proud.  There were long staircases that led to study areas for students, and tall bookshelves that reached the ceiling.  The whole place was made of wood, with warm carpets and stained glass windows that reflected on to the floor.  There were a lot of floors, with both staircases and elevators, and a bell on the top floor, but nobody went up there anymore.  Except me, of course.  Nico and I shuffled through the bustling library and I led him to the elevator.  I pushed the button for the second to top floor and we waited for a minute, listening to the elevator music.  Then the bell dinged, and I got excited.  I took Nico's hand and led him up a few stairs and straight into a wall.  

"What?" Nico looked puzzled.  "Why'd you bring me here?"

"A long time ago, I was having a hard time at school, so I asked the Hephaestus kids to make me a place of my own. Since then I've been here every weekend for a little bit. It's my safe place, and totally secret."  I was really excited now.  I'd never shown anyone my safe place.  Come to think of it, I don't even know why I was showing Nico.  I guess I just wanted to share it with him.  Whatever.  It felt right.  I reached down and flipped open a secret patch of the wall near the floor.  Then I punched in the code (7724) and a portion of the wall unlatched.  I slid it open and stepped up onto the raised floor and helped Nico after me.  He was impressed with what he saw, I could tell.  He followed me and looked around.  

"Wow. This is amazing."  I had covered the floor in soft, fluffy blankets and pillows, and stocked the shelves with all my favorite books and books I wanted to read.  I had a small place for food and cold drinks, a computer, and a bunch of movies.  I draped the windows with sheer yellow curtains and let the colors of the glass reflect onto the ground.  This was my favorite place on campus.  We both took off our shoes and sat on the blankets.  Nico was still taking it all in. 

"Can I...?" Nico wondered, his eye locked on my bookshelf.  I smiled.

"Go for it."