The Broken Light and the Broken Boy

Friends?

NICO'S P.O.V

"Di Angelo, Will you be my friend?..." 

Will you be my friend?... I drew a complete blank. Friends? If I could see my face it probably would've been an impersonation of a red-eyed, puffy-faced brown-eyed Percy Jackson. Utterly confused. Friends? Buddies? Pals? Amici? I think I'm more shocked about the forward asking. I mean it's not like I don't have friends, there's Jason, Hazel, Reyna and all of those guys, but we all just kinda... became friends. If I'm being honest I already thought we classified as friends; we're far more than acquaintances. That was proven when I woke up cradling him after his horrible night. We haven't talked about it since, but it was apparent Will knew since somehow I ended up in my bed again. 

"Nico? Hellooo? You still alive deathboy?" Will was waving his hand in front of my face, his eyebrows raised in slight alarm. I shake my head and my face goes red as I realise I was staring. Social awkwardness. Is that a trait for all kids of Hades?

"S-sorry bout that," I croaked, my throat felt raw, "I was lost in thought." He narrows his eyes and leans in closer to me my face as if to read my thoughts. 

"Hmm alright then, well what'd you say? Friends?" He leans back and extends his hand for me to shake. I go to reach for it when I am hit with an idea. I continue to grab his hand and he smiles wider than before. 

"Hold up Solace, I have one condition to becoming your friend," his smile quickly turns into a slightly scared look of concern before he realises he wasn't smiling and plasters a grin back onto his face. 

"Hit me, Ghost king," I smirk at his confidence. 

"Friends are supposed to be close so since I'm going to be placing a little trust in you you need to put some in me," the scared look is back but rather than all over his face I can see the fear in his eyes, it makes his blue eyes seem sad rather than pretty. I continue, "I want you to tell me a secret in return."

His face paled slightly and he averted his eyes, his usual glowing aura seems to dim slightly, my blood runs cold. I messed up. I go to try and apologise but he cuts me off by shaking my hand. 

"Deal!" I must've looked surprised because he chuckled after looking back at me, his glow back to normal. 

"Deal," I confirmed. 

"So Nico, as your newest and trustworthy friend, what was your dream about?" And with that, the fear and sadness in the air returned. His face dropped his usual smile and his eyes filled with worry. Images flood my head. 

"Monsters... they surround me and I'm trapped, exhausted, fear is the only thing keeping me going... I'm back in Tartarus..." Will sits there unmoving face free of any judgement and pity. I shiver as my skin crawls with the memory of it all. Will moves closer to me and my shivering stops almost as if his glow is erasing the fear in my skin, but unfortunately the fear runs deeper than my skin. 

"In my dream I... I was walking along when suddenly there was a group of shadow-like figures surrounding me in a circle. I'm not usually afraid of any shadows but they... they were different... they radiated this... chaotic darkness... it was terrifying, but that wasn't the worst part." My voice drops to a whisper and my eyes become blurry with tears threatening to breakthrough. 

"Nico, if you aren't ready to talk about it, don't force it ok?" I nodded my head as the tears spilled down onto my cheeks. I take a deep breath trying to stop myself from collapsing into a puddle of tears. Will looks at me concerned then suddenly he perks up slightly. "Hey come on until your ready to talk again let's go for a walk I wanna show you something," he stands up and reaches his hand out to me.