Asphodels (Valdangelo)

Exchanged stories

What year does the whole war against Gaea take place on? I know it wasn't anywhere close to the legalization of gay marriage and such, but like...

There's something about having your memories taken, that makes you more likely to freak out whenever you forget something; Leo reasons this as he explains to Nico why he won't take any ambrosia to fight the curse, not that it'd do him any good in the amounts he'd have to take it. Nectar helps a little, in the sense that Leo can last long enough to make it into a more discrete place to have his coughing fits; which is a discovery he makes solely because the curse gets worse.

And the curse gets worse, because Leo's becoming closer to Nico; or at least that seems to be the causing factor, considering everything.

It starts kinda like this:

After explaining the curse to Nico, and slipping up in the last second by revealing the gender of his crush; because, technically that's what this was, a crush gone terribly bad. There was a moment where Leo panicked internally, where the surprise on Nico's face could be anything, particularly because he strikes Leo as an old-fashioned sort of person.

Thankfully, however, instead of getting disgusted with him, or worse, actually attacking Leo in any way; Nico takes on an expression that makes him look his actual age, tentative, hopeful, curious, and sympathetic.

"Is... is that ok now?"

Leo's entire thought process stops dead on its tracks, and he blinks at Nico in surprise.

"Wh- what do you mean now?"

Nico looks away, face flushing slightly, which is only noticeable because of how pale he is.

"I'm not from this time"

And if that doesn't answer like ten different questions Leo had about the son of Hades.

"Like Hazel?"

Nico looks back at him, as though momentarily surprised, but then his expression relaxes; Leo wonders how much he knows about his connection to Hazel. Clearly he ignores the one Leo has to him, because Leo's pretty sure he'd have heard about it by now otherwise.

"Not exactly"

Leo rubs the back of his neck.

"It's sort of complicated, like, I'm not exactly out about my bisexuality, even though I've known it since I was like ten, because the system is cruel to queer kids"

He stops himself at the look on Nico's face and explains.

"Queer is ok to use for me, since I'm bi, like turning insults into fuel"
Nico makes the start of a motion with his hand before stopping as though restraining himself.

"That's not- the system?"

Leo blinks.

"Oh, I'm technically an orphan"

Nico frowns, Leo decides this has been a lot.

"I gotta run down to the engine room, but we can continue this another time"

In truth, he hopes Nico forgets that last bit of the conversation.

Despite everything, Nico does approach him again, once he can actually move freely, always when Leo's manning the helm solo, shadows curling at his feet almost happily; and is it weird that Leo finds that adorable? It probably is.

He finds out that, as long as he's honest with his answers and gentle with his questions, Nico becomes more willing to do the same, which is how he finds out about the boy's own crush, that he's actually Italian, and that he had a sister that passed away in battle. In turn Leo tells him about Morse lines shared through metal doors, about his experiences with both Gaea and Hera, and about his mother.

Nico focuses mostly on the Morse code, which Leo is forever grateful for, as he gets to distract himself with trying to brush Nico's knowledge of the code; it's something from his time that doesn't give him a killer headache from trying to remember suppressed memories. Leo figures that's why Nico's so understanding over his refusal to use ambrosia.

It's probably a bad idea, becoming close to the boy that's killing him, particularly when the more he learns the harder he falls for Nico; but he's already accepted the fact that he's gonna die of this curse, why not enjoy life a little while he still can?