The Lost Hero

Play dumb

As we were walking away from the big house I spoke the the mind link. "Play dumb. Ask lots of questions, they can't know we've been here before."

I could tell Bianca wanted nothing more than to hug her younger brother and catch up with him.

"So Nico," Cast started, "who's your godly parent?"

"Hades, God of the underworld and the dead." He smiled with pride that I've never seen from him before.

Bianca went next. "Do you have any siblings?" Of course she would want to know.

"Yep." He popped the P. "I had a sister over 200 years ago but she died when I was still young. And I have a half sister on the Roman side, Hazel. She's on Olympus right now but You'll meet her soon."

My turn.

"What about you Will?" I asked.

"My dad is Apollo, God of the sun, healing, music, archery, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I have to many siblings to count."  He answered as he grabbed Nico's hand.

I smiled, he seems happy. I'm glad, he was like a little brother to me.

The tour around camp was interesting. We finally got to the arena.

"This is the arena where we train. Also if you see a hell hound in here don't attack her. She's my dog." Nico informed us.

"You have a hell hound as a pet?" Bianca asked.

"Yeah, her name is Mrs. O'Leary." He gave a sad smile. "She used to belong to Percy Jackson but he went missing 200 years ago and she needed someone to take care of her because she missed Perce and got depressed."

I'm glad someone took care of her, I kinda miss her.

I decide I need to tease Nico a little bit. Even if he doesn't know it's me. 

"So... Aren't you guys like, polar opposites? How did this relationship come about?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

Nico smiled a sarcastic smile, he's still got that sass. "Oh, you know, the usual. I almost died, confessed my dead love for Percy Jackson, and them was forced to stay in the infirmary for three days because a certain ray of sunshine decided he cared and didn't want me to fade into shadows as you do." His voice dripped raw sarcasm. 

"He decided he wanted to stay in camp and then we've been together since." Will added.

Bianca practically beamed. "That's so cute! I'm so glad you guys are happy! It's rare to see a child of Hades happy." She added the last part, voice having layers of sadness.

"Will is to thank for that. I still remember how I was. Dam I was a handful." Nico noted.

Will looked irritated at the reminder, "yeah, you were. You had no sense of self preservation, self love, of self-esteem. All you did with your time was sulk and be depressed. Don't forget the year after you first came to camp where you disappeared only to appear consulting with an evil ghost trying to resurrect a sister that didn't want resurrected."

"I was mislead!" Nico defended himself. "And good things came out of that. I became the King of ghosts, and stopped blaming Percy."

"That's not how I remember it."

"You didn't even know me then."

"That doesn't mean I didn't notice you."

We silently backed away from to couple, not wanting to interrupt their adorable moment.