Superman

Running

DH: We don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus.

OW: I do however own the machette that I will use to kill DH for advertising my book without me knowing.

DH: Technically, your dad owns it. Not you.

OW: Shut up! *lunges*

Cameraman: And thanks to Leo for the help with the camera!

OW: *pauses* The camera was broken?

-DDLDHoW-

When Nico woke up, the first thing that he noticed was that he was cold. Really cold.

He shivered slightly and pulled the quilt closer to him, his black tank top not doing much to protect him from the cold morning aboard the ship. Leo may have tried to think of everything that they would need, but he had forgotten one major thing; heating.

Nico hated the cold. It always reminded him of bad times... He shuddered and tried to push the thoughts away. He wasn't usually this cold, even on mornings like this, when frost was creeping up on the ship's porthole windows and snow had covered the deck.

Then he remembered something. Jason.

He looked around his room, finding the son of Jupiter nowhere in sight.

Nico looked down at his blanket and stayed sitting in his bed for a moment before taking a deep breath and throwing off the blankets.

Immediately he regretted the action but he hastily pulled on a black t-shirt with skulls on it, back jeans and his aviator jacket.

He sighed in relief and ran his hand through his hair a few times - his version of combing. Then he clipped his Stygian iron sword to his belt and walked out of his bedroom, hands in his pockets.

He brought up his hand to hide the usual yawn that overcame him only to pause. The yawn wasn't coming.

And he couldn't feel his eyes being dragged down by tiredness either.

I actually slept last night when Jason came in, he realized. I slept without nightmares... did he do something? Maybe he took something from the Hypnos cabin at camp before he left?

Nico knew that this wasn't the case, but he preferred to think that it was rather than consider the other option.

He made his way to the dining hall, and when he walked in, found Percy, Piper, Hazel and Jason inside. Hazel smiled warmly at him, while Percy gave him a half-distracted wave. Piper kind of half-smiled while avoiding his gaze as always and Jason... wasn't even acknowledging his presence.

Nico frowned in confusion. Usually Jason would smile at him, or at least nod, if he was in a very heated debate with Percy.

But he never just outright ignored Nico.

Nico glanced over at Piper and realised something. They were on opposite sides of the table and weren't holding hands.

Did they break up? Nico thought, tilting his head in confusion. He immediately shook off the thought. Nah; probably just a small arguement or something.

He grabbed a plate and half a pommengranite before sitting next to Jason. Immediately, the blonde son of Jupiter tensed and stood up, leaving his sentence and meal alike unfinished. "I need to go; back in a few minutes."

Nico watched in confusion as he quickly left the dining hall. Percy glanced over at him, also confused. "Do you know what that was about?"

Nico shook his head, still staring at the door. "No clue..."

After a few moments of just sitting in silence, he stood up and followed Jason out of the room before anyone could ask another question.

After a few minutes of wandering the ship, Nico found Jason leaning against the railing in the same place that they had been the previous night.

Nico walked over to him. "Hey." He leaned on his folded arms against the railing.

"Nico," Jason replied shortly. Awkward silence followed the greetings.

Nico sighed. "So what's wrong?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Jason asked, his tone sharp, his muscles tense and rigid.

"Well for one thing, you and Piper aren't looking at one another or holding hands under the table anymore," Nico pointed out. "Secondly, you just left the room in the middle of a debate with Percy."

"I just didn't feel like staying," Jason retorted shortly.

"Cut the crap and just tell me what's wrong, Grace," Nico sighed.

Jason turned to face him, a glare set on his usually-happy features. "You want to know what's wrong, Di Angelo?"

Nico flinched. His surname on Jason's tongue sounded foreign, harsh and unnatural.

Kind of like you, a voice in his head told him. He pushed the voice to the back of his mind. "Yes, I do."

Jason chuckled darkly. As opposed to his laugh last night, this one was forced, deep, humourless and not very infectious. "Piper just broke up with me." Nico didn't say anything, assuming that Jason had more to say. He was right. "She did it because she thinks that I didn't love her anymore." He glared at Nico. "Because she thinks I love you."

Nico felt his heart come to a sudden, jittery halt as he struggled to remember how to breath. "Wh-what? That's ridiculous..."

"That's what I said," Jason growled. "I don't see why she thinks I'd love you like that." He looked down over the edge. "You're just a gay freak from the forties."

Nico completely froze, his eyes wide. "What... did you just say?" He choked out, praying that he had somehow misheard Jason.

"I think you heard me the first time," Jason responded coolly. "You're a gay emo; a freak from the forties."

Nico didn't know what to do for a minute. The one person he had felt that he could connect with and trust besides his sister on the Argo II had called him an emo and a freak. And he had used Nico's sexuality against him.

Nico had expected that from Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Frank and maybe even Hazel to some degree. But not Jason.

So Nico did what he did best of all.

He ran.

-DDLDHoW-

DH: Eheh... don't kill us?

OW: *crying*

Reviews:

@Daughter-OfPoseidon: We're sorry, sis... :( We don't mean to kill you.