Nico's Heroes

Mirrors

TRIGGER WARNING  MENTION OF SELF HARM AND SELF HATE

NicoPOV

 I am standing in front of the mirror staring at the person looking back at me. The person in the mirror looks thin and sickly. They are pale and have scars running up and down on their arms, legs, and torso.  I raise my right hand and the person in the mirror does the same.  I put my arm back down and just stare. On the side of the mirror is a picture. In this picture, there is a boy with a blonde boy. They are smiling and they look so happy. I look back to the mirror and back to the picture a few times. It is hard to believe they are the same person. I try to mimic the smiling boys in the picture, but I just look like I am grimacing. I sigh and Maria struts over and rubs against my leg. I smile and look back in the mirror to see the smile. It is a nice smile. Someone knocks on the door and walks in. They call my name and I realize its Will. 

"I'm in my room," I call out to him. 

"Hey, Nico, whatcha doing?" He asks nonchalantly. He leans against the door frame and looks at me. I am just wearing my black boxers still staring at the full-length mirror.

"Ah, I see. You don't like your body right?" He asks calmly. I nod. He comes behind me and places his hands on my waist.

"Alright, what do you not like?" He asks.

"My arms, torso, legs, neck, waist, everything. It's so feminine. I barely even have an Adam's apple, Will." I sniffle quietly.

"Well, Neeks. I love your body. It's androgynous. You're not entirely masculine and not entirely feminine. I think you are beautiful." He whispers in my ear.

"You like it? I'm not sure I do." I say.

"Well, Nico is there anything else you don't like?" He asks. I mutter something. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.''

" Scars," I whisper. Will makes an "Oh" sound and kisses my neck.

"Nico, Your scars show how strong you are and what you have survived. They are beautiful and anyone who says otherwise can fight me." Will says confidently. I smile at Will. One of the reasons I adore Will is because he makes me feel loved and safe. He hugs me from behind and we rock from side to side. Will starts laughing and I laugh along with him.

"Get dressed, you got a sword-fighting lesson with Percy, "Will informs me.

"Yeah alright." I go to my closet and open it up. I have very few coloured clothes and I don't wear them often. I pull out a black shirt with a sun and moon on it and put it on. It's nice. I pull on a pair of my ripped skinny jeans, taking a few tries to get it on without catching my toes in the holes. Once I finally get them on, Will and I walk to the training arena. Percy is already there with Riptide and I pull out my stygian iron sword. Will waves us goodbye and runs down to the infirmary.

"So, how have you and Will been?" Percy asks.

"Oh, we have been good, here come the kids," I tell him. He nods and we walk towards them.

"Alright guys, today we are gonna learn how to disarm your opponent," Percy tells the kids. "Nico and I will show you how to do it. You ready?" Percy asks.

"Oh yeah, get ready to have your ass kicked Jackson."

"You're on di Angelo!" Percy says. He comes towards me and strikes. I parry it easily and we go back and forth. We are pretty easily matched. Percy has experience and skill. I have skill and fast reflexes. We keep going for about five minutes before Percy makes a mistake and allows me to strike and disarm him easily. He looks a little confused for second an laughs.

"Alright class, does anyone know what Percy did that allowed me to disarm him?" I ask them. I point to a small girl.

"He opened up to much?" She answers.

"Yep, that is right. Percy get over here. So Percy had his arm high enough for me to duck under and grab his arm, allowing me to push his arm down and twist his wrist forcing him to drop his sword." I show the class what I did as I tell them.

" One of the perks of being smaller than your opponent is being able to move around them and find chinks in their armor,"  I tell them. Percy and I pair them up and let them practice on each other. Will comes back from the infirmary at one point to watch the lesson. When the lesson ends I go over to Will.

"Hey, darling. Oh, gods, you stink. Please go take a shower, then you can kiss me." Will tells me. I roll my eyes at him.

"Fine, but you gotta wait for me to finish," I tell him. He laughs as we walk back to my cabin. We enter and I walk over to my bathroom. I avoid looking in the mirror or down at my body. I turn the water on and step inside before it warms up. I stand in the spray of the water for a few minutes and relax. I grab my shampoo and conditioner and wash my hair, I then proceed to wash my body quickly. I rinse off and step out of the shower. I wrap my towel around my torso and I stand in front of the mirror. (Trigger warning) I look myself dead in the eye and I see hands clawing at my iris's trying to get out, then one of the hands bursts through my eye and I scream so loudly. Will comes running into the bathroom and drops to his knees. He starts to talk but I don't hear him, the voices are too loud.

"Faggot, he doesn't love you, he doesn't care, just end it all, the world would be better off without you, Just do it, you fucking wimp." I start to sob uncontrollably as Will wraps his arms around me. I try to push him away but I can't he is too strong. 

"Hey Nico, it is going to be okay, I love my darling angel, I love you," Will tells me. I can't take his pity anymore, I cant I need to tell him to stop.

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! " CAN'T TAKE THIS, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I scream at him. Will hugs me harder and doesn't say anything. I sob even harder and I just want to die.

MariaPOV

I have just woke up from my wonderful nap when I hear screaming and crying. I then realize that Nico needs me. I run to where the crying is when I hear,

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! " CAN'T TAKE THIS, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I run into the room and I see Nico being held close by the blonde boy. I go up to them and I wriggle my way into Nico's arms. I push my head in between Will and Nico's chests so I can get to Nico's face. He is still sobbing really hard so I do a small little meow and he takes a shaky breath. I press my head against his tear-stained cheek and I meow again. He is still crying really hard when Will lets go and grabs a sedative. He knows Nico isn't going to calm down anytime soon so this is the best course of action. Will calmly brings Nico back into his arms as Nico starts to thrash. He calmly takes the syringe and plunges it into Nico. Nico whimpers then goes limp. Will picks him up and dresses him. I jump onto the bed and lay in the crook of Nico's left arm as WIll lays down on the right side of Nico. Will grabs his laptop and puts on a show to watch. I watch it with him and we stay like that for a while. Some time had passed until Nico woke up ( I am a cat our sense of time is different from humans) Nico blinked his eyes open and took in his surroundings. His eyes then land on Will and Will smiles.

"Hello, beautiful." He says. Nico smiles

"Bongiorno, mio caro." Nico says. (Good morning my dear.) Will smiles and plants a kiss on Nico's lips. Yuck humans are gross, I don't get how they like that mouth licking. Tounges are for cleaning and eating that is it. I gag to show my disgust and they laugh.

"Did you not like that Maria?" Nico asks. I meow to tell him yes I hated that. He just laughs with Will. I put my head back down and try to sleep as Will puts on a show about two boys who build crazy things in their backyard every day of summer. They both seem to like it and the blonde boy Will sings along to every single song. Just another normal day in the life of an emotional support cat.