Chapter Text
Nico meandered behind the group as they all headed towards a picnic table. There were a few other groups of teens hanging around, most likely avoiding parents day, although Nico doubted it was for the same reasons. They all settled around a table, silence ringing amongst them and a hush from the other students following them. The hush doesn’t last for long, soon he could hear the whispers and feel the dirty looks on his back. Nico turned to try and distract himself and saw the same tree that one kid crashed into a few days ago. Carlos would not stop talking about it and some of the branches were still broken.
He glanced around the table, everyone seemed to be in their own miserable little worlds. Shit. Today did not go how anyone wanted. Nico reached under the table, his hand finding Wills. He felt a surge of warmth as his boyfriend softly smiled at him.
Footsteps crunched behind him on the dry grass. He turned as Kaito walked up to their table.
“Hey… um… I heard what happened, and well…” Kaito began but trailed off with a waver in his voice.
“I can’t move dorms. I don’t think it's allowed,” Nico cut in, trying to get ahead of whatever posh thing the Auradonian prince would say next.
“What? No! I mean, that’s not what I was going to say. I like having you as a roommate. I mean I don't really know you because you’re never really around but what I was trying to say is that I’m sorry for what happened and I don’t want you to think everyone is like that or it's the whole country or anything. I know we haven't really talked yet but I was hoping you'd be staying for a while and, well, over break I’m going back to Italy but if you need a break from the school’s snobbishness you're…welcome. All of you. My castle is really big. Like way too big, my mom likes a lot of storage space.” Kaito rants, the words spilling out of his mouth like they couldn’t be stopped. He wrung his hands when he finished, as anxiety spilled off of him.
Nico’s mouth dropped open. He saw similar looks of surprise around the rest of the table.
“Are you…sure? That's a big offer and well…” Evie said, casting a nervous glance at Mal whose face was carefully and concerningly blank.
“Yeah, I mean…I get not fitting in. I mean maybe not as much as you guys but um, well, with my mom and everything. It would feel wrong if I didn’t at least try to help. Plus Nico’s my roommate, what are roommates for except to help each other, right?” he responded nervously.
“So you want something in return?” Jay asked, relaxing at the familiarity of negotiation.
“Uuuuh no? I mean not right now?” Kaito responded, glancing questioningly at Nico. He shrugged in response.
“That’s really kind of you Kaito, my mama was from Italy, so it would be really nice to see it here,” Nico said, some of the words catching in his throat. He didn’t love doing this whole vulnerable thing but it was better than having his roommate hate him. Plus Will was right there, holding his hand.
“Cool! Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, um, just let me know what you all decide!” Kaito responded, a smile breaking across his face as he walked away. Nico just caught him mumbling something about how he maybe should have asked his parents first.
“Shit. You think he meant it?” Jay asked, trepidation and excitement in his voice. Carlos smiled from beside him.
“That would mean we’d all have a place to stay! We could-” Carlos started saying excitedly, a plan forming behind his eyes.
Mal cut him off, “It doesn’t matter,” she said, a familiar finality in her voice. Nico had heard that before. Usually from soldiers or commanders looking war or death in the face and accepting the fight. Resigning themselves to never knowing peace.
Will frowned beside him. Nico and him shared a look. They couldn’t let the VK’s go back, not when there was another option. Even if they were here to set Hades free or whatever this quest was for, these kids' safety came first. His sister's safety came first. They needed to stop Mal from taking the wand. The big question now was how in the hell they were going to do that.
Nico was just about to pull Will away from the table, to go talk about it, when he saw Ben and Elizander coming towards them.
“Hey, guys. How is everyone?” Blank stares answered Ben’s greeting. “Yeah? Hey, listen. Forget about it. All right? It was nothing. Forget about it. Let it go. Tomorrow, after the coronation, I promise everything will be okay. I have to go. I'll see you guys later,” Ben met Mal’s eyes, silently making sure she was okay, before he turned and marched off, leaving them all staring after him.
“What? Seriously? Ben!” Eli shouted after him, throwing their hands up before flopping onto the bench next to Carlos. “That was not a conversation.”
“Mal,” Nico started, turned to her, “I think he may have some avoidance issues”
“He’s a prince, what did you expect?” Mal responded, face finally changing into a small amused grin.
“I would say they’re not all like that, but really they’re just all differently bad. Like jelly beans” Eli said, leaned onto the table and unbuttoned the cuffs of their jacket.
“I like jelly beans,” Carlos said.
“I mean yeah until you get a vomit flavored one, or grass, or pepper, or sausage, or-” Eli’s cut off by Will.
“I’ve literally never gotten those flavors,” he said to them, eyebrows raised in shock.
“Really? You must be really lucky, like only half the flavors are good” Eli shrugged and rolled up their sleeves.
“Geeze, are all jelly beans in Auradon like that? If so, I'm going to have to avoid them” Nico said, trying to add more humor to the conversation. Not his strong suit but he might as well try.
“Oh, huh…maybe not? I guess I haven't actually tried them since I got here. I just assumed,” they said with another casual shrug.
“Wait, what do you mean got here? Aren't you from here?” Evie asked, confused. Nico supposed they were all led to believe that they're the only ones to make it off the Isle and they did just learn in class that wonderland was sealed off so, where was Eli from?
Before they had a chance to respond, Doug walked up to the table. Wow, they were popular today. Nico just wished it was in a good way.
“And that’s my cue to go find Ben,” Eli said, “good luck,” they nodded at Evie as they walked away.
“Listen, Evie, I wanted to make sure you were ok after… everything” Doug said, paying no mind to the other people at the table or Elizander brushing past him.
“Yeah I’m ok, we all will be,” Evie responded, a blush dusted her cheeks. ‘Oh’, Nico thought. ‘Well Doug was a much better choice than Li Xiao.’
“Oh well, that's good, sorry about my countryfolk I guess,” Doug said with a self-deprecating laugh.
“Doug…” Evie began before getting cut off by Audrey’s sneering voice from behind them. Nico turned to glare at her.
“How long does she think that's gonna last? Mal is just the bad girl infatuation,” she said, an oily smile on her face.
“Yeah. I mean, he's never gonna make a villain a queen,” Jane laughed alongside Audrey. Nico’s gaze grew colder, how dare they. When did those two even start hanging out? Will squeezed his hand in warning.
“Beware, forswear, undo Jane's hair,” Mal said, just loud enough for the table to hear. A fury was in her eyes but there was sadness there too. Nico clenched his jaw and turned away from the mean girl wannabes, it's like watching a knockoff Regina George but with no sense of style.
“Ew!” Chad’s voice echoed across the courtyard as Jane's hair returned to its normal style. Jane let out a shriek and turned to Mal, stunned.
“There's a lot more where that came from,” Mal said, standing up and beginning to march away. Nico could almost hear the badass music playing as she walked away. Thankfully the only actual noise was the shocked murmurs. He could not have handled another musical number right then.
Nico stood with the rest of the VK’s, ready to follow Mal. Will’s hand in his, they started walking after her. As they passed Audrey’s table and Nico shot them a glare some blonde boy rolled his eyes at him.
“God that emo is such a mama's boy, did you hear how…” the blonde boy's voice faded out as Nico stopped walking. ‘Mama’s boy’ echoes in his head. Did they overhear him talking about Italy? Who are they talking about? Did they know Persephone was his step-mom? Anxiety built in his chest as Audrey's laugh echoed in his ears.
Suddenly he wasn’t standing on the grass. He couldn’t feel Will’s hand in his, the sun was no longer shining. There was a wooden floor under his feet, the smell of burning and ozone filling the air. He was shorter than he should be. He gasped for breath but he couldn’t seem to get any. His eyes slid closed. Distantly he felt someone pulling on his arms, felt himself sitting down, felt something warm on his skin, heard yelling. But all he could smell was the acrid stench of burning wood and something else, something he didn’t want to think about.
“Nico?” Will slowed down and turned to see what had caused his boyfriend to stop in his tracks. He knew that Nico had a short temper but he wouldn’t do anything rash in the situation the rest of the VKs were in...probably. “Hey you alright?”
Will turned his boyfriend further towards him. Nico’s eyes were slightly glazed over and his breath came quicker than normal. ‘Shit’ Will thought, as he turned back to glare at the remnants of the bitchy teens' laughter.
“Nico?” Evie asked.
“He’s having a flashback,” Will said, voice low and dark. “Why don’t you lead him further over there? I need to talk to someone” he instructed Evie, trusting her to be able to help his love. After all, they had lived together for months.
Will made his way over to the picnic table.
“Hi, I don't think we’ve met before” Will said with a blinding grin, literally blinding. The blonde boy squinted at him.
“Uuh, yeah…I am Kaiden Van Tassel, nice to meet you?” the boy said, as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“No, I don’t think it will be,” Will commented.
“Uh, can we help you?” Audrey said as she rolled her eyes.
“Yeah aren’t you a little busy dealing with the freaks temper tantrum?” Kaiden said with a chuckle.
Will’s head whipped around and he leaned against the table, dropping the fake smile, “What the fuck did you just say?”
Kaiden swallowed heavily and shrunk away from Will’s murderous gaze. Will could tell the boy was about to back down, but someone else at the table must have given him a look because the idiot boy swallowed again before he straightened up.
“You heard what I said,” Kaiden responded.
Will grit his teeth and debated whether or not he should escalate, he glanced back at Nico. He could walk away right now, he didn’t have to do this, it may not help anything.
“You Greeks are so dramatic, it's not like any of you ever actually do anything. Why do you even go to this school again?” Audrey sneered at him.
Will turned back to her, she’d said Greek like she meant something else. He saw her glance back at Nico with a smirk.
Decision made, Will reached out towards Kaiden, maintaining eye contact with Audrey. He gripped the back of the boy's head and sent it flying towards the table. The impact of slamming Kaiden's head reverberated up Will's arm. He grinned. The boy screamed as Will heard the crunch of a broken nose. Shrieks went up around the table, Jane scrambled back away from the bench, Audrey gasped and almost fell over herself getting out of the way. Somewhere behind him Will heard Jay whoop in excitement.
Kaiden attempted to get out of Will’s grip but he tightened the hold he had on the kid's hair and finally turned back to him. Blood poured out of the boy's now crooked nose and equally pathetic tears spilled out of his eyes. It was almost like the kid had never had a broken bone before.
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I grew up surrounded by warriors, real warriors. Warriors that the gods themselves have blessed. I have tended to their wounds and learned exactly how long it takes for the best demigod and human bodies to break,” Kaiden whimpered, “War and fighting is a part of my culture, real war, the kind that kills thousands. Far more than anything you could imagine being on the oh so dangerous Isle. So when I tell you to leave my boyfriend and friends alone, it's not a request. It's a threat” Will growled at the boy, just loud enough for everyone at the table to hear him.
Finally, he let Kaiden go, and straightened up his posture. He glared around at the other people who surrounded the table. He almost gave into the urge to say something more threatening to Audrey when he felt something tug at his ankle. He looked down and saw a shadowy tendril wrap around his foot. Will glanced behind him. Nico sat against a tree, Evie rubbed at his back and shadows whipped out around him. Carlos and Jay stood nearby, Mal was nowhere to be seen. Nico’s eyes still looked glazed over.
Will sent one last glare at Audrey as one of Kaiden’s friends rushed over to him. Will walked to where Nico was. The shadows surrounding him were almost pitch black and threatening to become solid to the touch —nearly defying laws of matter.
“Nico? Nico, my beloved, can you hear me?” Will asked, crouching down next to him. The shadows darkened.
“I don’t know how to help, it's never been this bad before” Evie said, voice tense. Her eyes darted around wildly and her shoulders were so high they were threatening to meld with her ears.
“It has, just not here,” Will said as he reached out for his boyfriend's hand and cupped it in his. “Nico you need to-” Will cut himself off as he saw something rising out of the shadows next to his leg. He focused his gaze on it, as it continued to rise he saw it was….the fuck was Henry doing here?
Henry was one of Will’s and Nico’s many children —or Cocopuffs as dubbed by them and the rest of camp. The Cocopuffs were a physical embodiment of trauma that Nico had experienced, given as courtesy and “gift” from Nyx and their many ‘adventures’. Henry had two eyes, curved horns, and the cutest little feet —sure it was terrifying seeing those glowing eyes in the middle of the night but he loved Henry and the others nonetheless.
Ignoring the appearance of Henry for now, he went to continue to comfort Nico. Henry seemed to have the same idea, given that the little ball of blackness went to touch Nico’s ankle. Seeing that the comforting gestures weren't working, the only other grounding technique he could think of that would actually work for his boyfriend was the weighted blanket that was in Nico's dorm. Taking the 35lb blanket outside defeated the purpose of a safe space for Nico, and wouldn't allow him to calm down. Seeing the possibilities of Nico going into hypoxia, Will decided it was best to carry him to his dorm.
Will reached one arm under Nico’s knees and the other behind his back, supporting Nico’s head. As he lifted him up, Will turned to Evie.
“We are going back to the dorms,” Will said. Evie nodded and led the way.
Will glanced back one last time but the assholes seemed to have fled back into the school building. Henry jumped at his feet, grabbing onto the shoelaces. Will sighed and began the long trek back to Nico’s room.