When The Sun Sets (Solangelo)

Words

Nico woke up multiple times throughout the night after a nightmare and wanted to cut. A few times Chiron had to physically hold him back from rushing to the first sharp thing he could get his hands on.

He cried a lot. He begged and begged for different amounts of time. Chiron wasn't unfamiliar with Nico doing this. It happened every time he relapsed. He reverted heavily to his old ways. It didn't phase Chiron when he acted like this. Sure, he hurt for his camper and it wasn't easy to take care of him, but he knew every one reacted differently to relapse and recovery. Nico was originally in a really bad state. He'd gotten to the point of seemingly no return. His recovery was probably the hardest Chiron experienced.

Nico had previously gotten to the point that he was cutting four to five times a day. Each time he cut he would cut either dangerously deep or cut a dangerous amount of times. Sometimes both. It wasn't until he could feel his own life aura slipping away that he'd realized that he needed help, badly and soon. He'd gone to Thalia first. She was like a sister to him and he trusted her. She told him that she had to tell Chiron.

Chiron looked at the sleeping boy. It was nearly time for breakfast. He decided that he would have Percy come watch him if he needed to go out and do something. He also decided that he would move up the exam day to the current day and announce it at breakfast.

The breakfast horn blew and Nico slowly opened his eyes with a yawn.

"Am I eating in here?" He asked. Chiron nodded. Nico rolled his eyes. And yawned. He'd hardly slept at all. "Do I have to eat?"

"At least two meals. But if you want to wait until later to eat and sleep more you can. You've had a rough night," Chiron said.

Nico nodded. He looked down and stared at his arm as if mentally peeling the bandages away. He started to tear up. Ashamed of himself. Ashamed that he wanted to do it again because he'd let himself down by doing it in the first place.

"I'm sorry. I'm not a good camper, I'm not a good demigod. I fail at everything," he said quietly. He didn't know who he was saying it too, Chiron, himself, his dad, it didn't matter.

"Nico, you don't fail at everything. You have helped immensely in both wars, you've lifted spirits of some of the younger campers. You have done so much good. This is just something bad that can be dealt with. It can be controlled and while it may never fully heal, it can get better," the centaur said.

Nico just sat there and stared. Then he laid back down and turned to his side.

Soon enough Percy came in to Chiron's office with a look of panic on his face.

"Chiron! Nico isn't at breakfast, and after yesterday I'm worried something happened," Percy said. He looked over to the bed and saw the Italian boy on his side staring blankly at the wall. "Oh, something did happen."

"Last night. I have an announcement I need to make at breakfast, may you keep an eye on him while I do so?"

"Yeah, of course," Percy said. He looked at Nico with sad eyes, though he was unsurprised. Chiron left the room. "Nico, are you alright?" Percy asked him.

Nico quietly shook his head and he teared up again.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Nico said. "I just want to cut."

Percy sighed. "So you relapsed then?" Nico just nodded. "How long does Chiron want you to stay in here?"

"A week. Unless you let me stay in your cabin," he said.

"I'll clean it out so you can stay tomorrow."

*_*_*

Will was sitting at the Apollo table with Daisy. He was getting slightly worried about where Nico was.