luce del sole (sunshine)

nine | nico

Will looked broken. He was alone in the infirmary again, with his siblings gone to report to Chiron. Nico woken up to him sitting on the cot next to him, knees pulled to his chest and eyes bloodshot. 

The sheet pulled over the girl's body told Nico not to question the blond.

Will must have carried him to his cot again, because Nico was sure he'd fallen asleep on the floor, but he'd woken with his head on the pillow he'd become so familiar with. Nico wasn't sure Will knew he was awake. He was in his own little world. 

Kayla came in with two plates of breakfast. Nico sat up, but Will didn't budge. Kayla brought Nico his food and set Will's plate down next to him and left without a word. Her hair was tangled and her eyes had bags. If Austin looked this bad, Nico knew something had gone horribly wrong on that table last night, not just a dying demigod. 

Nico's hands stopped halfway to his fork. A dead demigod. He gasped inwardly and whipped his head to Will. The son of Apollo was looking at him now, eyebrows slightly raised. 

For once in Nico's life, he hadn't felt anything. He'd been right there, just meters away when she died. No internal alarms had gone off, like they always did when someone was close to their end. 

He'd killed her- he knew it. This instability with his powers had leaked into someone unstable with their life. He'd stopped her heart. He'd lost control without even knowing it. Will was right; he may never get to use his magic again- but he did have an unwilling part in a girl's death. 

"It was me," he muttered, choking on his words, "Will, I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Will's voice was hoarse. 

"I...I did that-" Nico's voice shook. 

Will stopped him. "You didn't do that." He was still looking at his hands. They were stained with blood. The red stood out against his tan skin. 

"Will, I'm a son of Hades. Someone died!" Nico threw his hands up. He'd disregarded his stomach now. 

"She died because I couldn't do my job," Will hissed, "not because you lost control." Nico realized just how broken Will was over this. He'd never snapped at Nico, never held that glare the dark-haired boy was for more than a moment. Will's playful demeanor was gone. 

"She had internal bleeding, Nico. She'd been stung by a manticore, dehydrated, and beaten by something large. Her death wasn't your fault." 

Nico moved his plate out of the way and slid off his cot. He braced his arms on the cot to take the weight of his leg and hopped, one hop, over to the cot Will was on, and braced himself on that one. 

"In that case, it isn't yours either," Nico told him. "She wasn't going to make it anyway." 

Will sighed and looked at Nico. He slid off his cot too and tried to make his way around Nico. He'd never frowned for this long. "Get off that leg." 

Nico grabbed his wrist. The movement swung him around, making him put weight on his leg. He hid his hiss of pain with a grimace. Will stopped in his tracks as not to pull Nico along. 

"Stop," Nico told him, "stop that. Doctors can't save everyone. Not even heroes can save everyone." 

Nico remembered Leo Valdez and his sacrifice. All those heroes, all those demigods, and not one person could save him. Leo knew what he was risking. So did the other six on the Argo II. So did Nico and Reyna. No one could stop him. 

"I didn't even know her name," Will whispered. "She...she looks like the girl version of Percy. She has a tattoo of waves on her arm. She's...she has to be a daughter of Poseidon...and she's just...gone. No one even knew who she was. Someone has to be missing her." 

Nico squeezed his wrist. "That's not your fault."

"Well, I damn well didn't save her." Will laughed humorlessly. "Let me get back to my work." 

"What work?" Nico looked around. "Since I got here you've been scrubbing the occasional beaker, reading, and sleeping." 

Will sighed and sat back down. "I'm taking the day off. Maybe longer. I'm gonna go into the city."

"To look for missing posters." It wasn't a question, really. Nico knew what Will was after. 

Will smiled sadly. "Does anything get by you?" 

"Take me with you." 

Will chuckled like he couldn't believe what he was saying. "Are you kidding? Nico, I don't let you go to lunch."

"You're a little overprotective, yes," Nico agreed with him. Will opened his mouth to object, but Nico stopped him by lifting his hand. "But that doesn't mean you have to continue to be."

Will shook his head. "You're talking nonsense. Go take a nap, Nico." 

Nico put his foot down. "Take me with you or I'm telling Chiron your plan."

"What plan?"

"You want to find her family," Nico mused, "you want to tell them what happened. Will, that could get you arrested. It could get you put in an asylum. You could expose the camp." 

"Her family has to know what she is. Poseidon promised to claim everyone. She had wave tattoos. They deserve to know," Will explained. 

"Yes they do. Take me with you." 

"You're blackmailing me!" 

"I am simply using my resources." Nico smirked. "Take me or don't go. And you can drop the 'It's my fault, I hate myself' act." 

Will glared at him, dropping his sad smiles. "I let her die, Nico. You don't get that." 

"I don't get death?" Nico chuckled and released Will's wrist, which he'd forgotten he was holding. "You think that I don't understand letting someone die? Will, I let my sister die. I let all those people in the Battle of Manhattan. I let Chris go insane. You think I don't know the 'it's my fault' act? I invented it." 

"Those deaths in Manhattan weren't you." 

"If I can send someone to the Underworld, I can bring them back, Will. Use your brain." 

Will stared at him. "You can bring people back?" 

"It isn't natural. I tried once...with my sister. Bianca's spirit appeared. She wouldn't come back. She told me..she told me to move on. She was right." 

"You talked to her...oh, Neeks..."

"It happened." Nico stopped him from expressing his pity. Nico hated that. "Will, she'd been dead for almost a year. I had to let it go. I'm not good at that."

For the first time, Will looked at the girl laying on the cot. "Me either, but can you...can you try something for me?" 

Nico cued in on his thoughts at once. He broke into a small, mischievous smile. "I thought I wasn't allowed to do Underworld magic."

"I'll be here to catch you," Will promised, "and I have to know." 

Nico smiled and stuck his hands in the pockets of Will's basketball shorts, which still hung on him. "I'm going to need a few things," he said, all while trying to pretend that Will's promise of being there to catch him didn't make his stomach lurch and his words jumble.