Lives Collide, Harm(fully)(lessly)

Chapter 7

AN: I haven't been happy where this story has been going it's been rushed lately and I apologize for that but hopefully it'll be easier to write as it goes on

Nico sat with his head laying on the ping pong table, eyes closed as he listened to Percy and Annabeth bicker. He wanted to escape to Hogwarts soon, but Percy and Annabeth weren't going to have that. They would have made him stay, too, if it hadn't been for her water breaking.

As soon as Percy was thrown into pre parental panic and Chiron left to talk to the kids, Nico stepped into a shadow and fell through to Dominic's location. Once he got him, he left for Hogwarts before anyone could stop him.

It had come to the point that he hated Camp Half-Blood.

When he told Dominic, things between them shifted. A shift they never would be able to repair.

Because war forced you to choose sides. Conflicts broke relationships apart. What was once carefree and happy could easily turn dark and full of despair. One page of a book, the start of a story, happy and innocent in beginnings. The next page, the climax, darkness seeping in. The world isn't perfect. It's falling, it's on fire. No one can escape it.

You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

"Funny you think that..." Dominic was glaring down at his wand, his voice dark and low. "I was starting to think the same of this place."

Nothing lasts forever, not even the only thing you could call a gift, a blessing.

"You hate it here?" Nico asked. "Why?" He looked around the empty dormitory. "What did it do to you?"

"I can't be myself," Dominic said. "Classes take up my whole day and then there's homework and it's not even that I just hate school. It's not that. It's the fact that I'd rather be training and saving the world than sitting on my ass writing papers."

Nico held up a scarred hand. "Saving the world gets exhausting. Saving the world can kill you."

"I know."

"You weren't in Gryffindor for a reason."

"I know."

"Do you still choose the demigod life?"

"I do."

Nico let his hand fall, the distance between them seeming to grow. "Have you been thinking about quitting school, Dominic?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't sure until now." Dominic snapped his wand in half, the sound breaking a string of fate. "I've had dreams, I've had visions, I've had gut feelings. Trusting instincts, we talked about this. I'm trusting my instincts."

Nico clenched his jaw, tried to keep his emotions down. "Get your stuff. I'll take you to camp."

Dominic grabbed one of Nico's bags and packed his clothes before standing up. "I'm not taking any of my wizarding things. I won't have need for them."

Anger that Nico didn't appreciate bubbled up in his chest as he grabbed the son of Apollo, his nails digging into that tan arm. "Let's go."

He shadow traveled to camp and without a word dropped Dominic off. Before anyone could see, before a word could be said, Nico was falling into the darkness he now claimed as his own.

Darkness. He had been walking the path of shadows since Bianca died. In little bits, light had peeked through in an illusion of hope. But it was all a hallucination. His friendship, it seemed, was the longest one he had sustained. Hogwarts and the Weasley's were still showing that light, but now it seemed less bright.

When Nico walked into the library that night, it seemed the others could see this change right away.

"Nico, are you okay?" Hermione looked up from her book to eye the son of Hades. They had planned to meet up for homework, but now all eyes were on his depressed state.

He sat down beside his brother, told them what had happened at camp and with Dominic. When he was done, he simply laid his head down and closed his eyes. He was tired of the darkness.

But when you were born and raised in darkness, darkness is the only thing you'll ever know.