.......That's How a Superhero Learns to Fly

“Yeah, I knew she’d been promoted to Centurion. She deserves it.” Nico couldn’t stop the hint of pride in his voice, not that he wanted to anyway. Hazel was the closest thing he had to a blood sister, and he was damn proud of her for everything she’d managed to accomplish. One of the best things Nico ever did for anyone was save Hazel from the Fields of Asphodel. It was a risk, but he’d do it over and over again just to watch her flourish like she was.

“Reyna needs to learn to take a break,” he said, rolling his eyes a bit. He’d tried to teach her the value of a lazy day where all you do is read comics or play games, but she turned everything into a “learning opportunity” or a strategy exercise. He eventually got fed up and went to go hide out in his cabin. 

Nico didn’t say much about that. Things were rarely going well in his life. It wasn’t up until a few months ago that he could even say that he enjoyed being alive. Before, he was just waiting for a time when he wouldn’t be useful so he could slip away into the shadows, never to return. But between Will, Jason, Hazel, Reyna, Coach Hedge, and hell, even Percy and Annabeth, Nico was learning that living might not be the worst thing he’d ever done. At least when there were no monsters or vengeful gods trying to kill him.

He thought back to the day he accidentally became an ambassador for Hades. “Well,” he said around a mouthful of brownie, “the first one they gave me was white. I just kind of looked at them and handed it back. I told them I’d wear my own clothes. They said I couldn’t, so I just went and found someone who would dye the toga for me.” He shrugged. “They just kind of let me." 

People did those kinds of things to him from time to time. Let him do things that maybe others wouldn’t be able to do. All because they were scared of him. Nico hated it. Sure, he kind of liked that people thought he was intimidating enough to be scared of (especially given how short he still is), but he didn’t want people to be scared of him all the time. 

"Oh, no. Not the sad baby seal eyes. I could never subject you to those,” Nico deadpanned. Then he smirked. He was actually happy that Jason had given them to him and not to Percy.

Jason was about to respond when he heard “Grace! Where the hell are you hiding? I saw you arrive!” and he sighed. Not that he wanted to avoid the others, but he enjoyed talking to Nico so much, and there was rarely time just for the two of them anymore. But apparently their time had come to an end. 

“Sorry, I should go. Chiron’s going to want my report, and I should start greeting everyone else before they mob us both up here.” He figured that would make Nico slip away faster than you could ay ‘stygian iron’, so he wanted to give him the clear out before it even potentially became an issue. “But, maybe I’ll see you at dinner?”

He still had a vivid memory of when Nico had first started living full time at the camp and he used to summon the powers of darkness to give credence to his story that he had a ‘medical condition’ that meant he couldn’t sit at a table by himself at meals. Will had furthered the story by signing a ‘doctor’s note’, and Chiron had rolled his eyes and gone with it. Jason wasn’t quite that brave, but he enjoyed the times Nico sat with him, and sometimes he snuck over to one of the other tables anyway, using his liminal state to justify it. 

Nico snorted. “You know, if I wanted to, I could make it impossible to track me down anyway,” he pointed out. Not that he really wanted to do that to Jason, but… well, he’d done it before. Even when Hazel was the only one who could track him down, she had only managed to get close. Hades himself admitted that Nico is a hard guy to find. It wasn’t that Nico liked to be so slippery per say… but no, that’s exactly what Nico liked. The unpredictability made everything else easier to handle. 

“Though, it has been a while since I’ve seen them. How are they?” Nico was basically incapable of not asking about Hazel and Reyna. He loved both of his sisters (and yes, Reyna counted as one of his sisters now) very much, but making the trip to New Rome was exhausting. Especially since his shadow travel has been put on a minimum for a while.

Nico shrugged. “Your point?” he asked. “Every movement requires muscles. But not every movement is good for you in the midst of battle anyway.” And Nico had put that theory to a test. Mouthing off or rolling your eyes at the wrong person was a bad idea, even for a son of Hades. Or, rather, especially for an already loathed son of Hades.

“Yeah, I guess you’ve got me there. The togas are awful. I just got lucky mine was black.” Nico hated the togas. At least, he hated wearing them. He didn’t care if other people wore them, but when he wore one of them? Nope. Bad bad bad. “And the Stoll brothers are only funny when they’re not pranking you.” He gave Jason a look. Nico had been at the butt of their pranks too many times for him to think they’re funny. 

Nico hesitated, thinking that maybe he should let Jason go and get settled now. Surely he was tired and had better things to do than stand at the tree line and talk to Nico. It’s not like they were even really discussing anything important… But then Jason offered him brownies, and really, he couldn’t say no to those.

“Oh my gods, Jason. You’re the best,” he said through a mouthful of brownie. He practically inhaled the treats, his newly returned appetite still getting the better of him sometimes. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, ok, true.” Jason was pretty good at finding people when he wanted to, but Nico was a whole other class of ‘finding’. And Jason knew when to admit defeat. Even if he didn’t like the idea. 

Still, Jason couldn’t hold back the grin as he thought about Hazel and Reyna. “They’re doing great! Hazel and Frank are still an almost scarily good couple and he gave her flowers randomly at least once that I saw. And she’s la centurion now - but I’m sure you heard about that. Still, I’ve never seen her walk so tall. Reyna is, well, Reyna. She’s working as hard as ever, but I think she’s starting to look forward to when she can actually muster out.”

“Exactly. But it doesn’t have to be good for you in the middle of battle to be useful. It could be just good practice for when things are going well in your life. You know, smiling. Shows you’re happy. All of that.”

Jason shrugged. The Stoll brothers rarely bothered to prank him - something about being able to call down lightning had them a little more cautious - but he knew that wasn’t the case for a lot of people. “Was yours black, or did you just convince them it had to be black to match your style? I have a feeling people wouldn’t really argue with you over it.” That might have been something Jason used to know, but he wasn’t sure. The days right before his disappearance were still fuzzy, and slight details like that were the most likely to slip through. Everything major was there, but of course, now he had a different sense of what was major and he was still working to pull everything back.

“Yeah.” Nico had nothing really to say about it. He knew Jason would eventually have to go back to doing real things for people and wouldn’t be able to focus on Nico as much. It kind of sucked, but he was used to it. 

He snorted. “It doesn’t matter how bored I get, I’ll never succumb to Leo’s level. Worst case scenario, I go to the Underworld and let my father or Persephone boss me around some. That usually inspires a stroke of brilliance to get rid of my boredom.” Nico didn’t want to admit how many times he’d done that. The Underworld was a great cure for both boredom and lonliness. Again, not that he’d admit it.

Nico shook his head. “Not exactly. Why would a warrior need muscles in their face?” He gave Jason a look, both of his eyebrows crinkled together. Seriously… his face? Nico had plenty of muscles, but he wasn’t sure any of the ones in his face would serve him well in battle. “I thought about my face hurting. Smiling is really exhausting." 

Nico had to give that to him. Of course, he never felt … okay, that was a lie. But he never admitted to feeling guilty about things. And sleeping was one thing that Nico was still slowly rediscovering. He had his good nights and his bad nights. "I’ll give you that. Sleep can be okay sometimes. The Roman camp is always busy doing something anyway. Almost worse than here.”

“Good thing that’s the worst case scenario, or I’ll never be able to track you down. You could come with me the next time I go back to New Rome, if you want. It might be a little less boring, and it’ll save me from the next lecture by Hazel and Reyna.” Even now he didn’t like to pressure Nico too much, but company on his journey cross country could be nice, and Nico was one of the only other people who drifted like he did. It just felt better to have the option out there. 

He chuckled and gave Nico an amused look back. “You know it also takes muscles to frown, glare threateningly, pout, snarl, anything of that nature? Its just a slightly different use. And yes, that look you just gave me counts in that.” He didn’t really see how smiling could be exhausting, but that could be more of a lack of use thing. After all, any muscle that wasn’t used regularly did get sore when you started using it again. And now he was proving Nico’s point by arguing it in his own mind. He push it aside.  

“And if I’m here, I don’t have to wear a toga to meetings, which is a lot more comfortable. As ex-praetor and pontifex I’m expected to make a good show of it, but its a lot less fun than watching the Stoll brothers play pranks before meetings start. So, obviously, there’s a whole host of reasons to be excited to be here, beyond the obvious of seeing my friends again.” 

“Chiron’s around. You’ll find him.” Secretly, Nico wanted to spend as much time catching up with Jason as he could. But he knew that eventually, Jason would have to go talk to Chiron or Mr. D or would be whisked off by Piper and Percy and Annabeth… And Nico would have to share him again. These few moments, Jason was his and Nico liked that.

Probably a bit more than he should, but he was good at ignoring those feelings for better or for worse.

“Do you think I would let Valdez try out an invention on me?” Nico asked, raising his eyebrows. The only time Leo had gotten anywhere close to trying an invention on Nico, he’d slipped away into the shadows at the last second, causing a minor explosion in the Hephaestus cabin. It was actually kind of funny, but Leo didn’t seem to think so.

Nico did notice how Jason’s eyes roved over him. He felt like he was put on display. His entire body flared with heat, and he just willed it to not show on his face. He didn’t like the feeling of being scrutinized at all… the only consolation he had was that this was Jason. Jason who wouldn’t judge based on what he saw, unlike some others. 

Either way, Nico squirmed a bit, wanting to go hide in his cabin or slip into the shadows and let them take him somewhere far away. He had to remember that he’d been looking forward to Jason coming home. That put things in perspective again. 

“Of course you’d think about the muscles first. Such a Roman,” Nico said, slightly teasing. He liked seeing Jason smile so much, even if it was a bit unsettling since he literally hadn’t stopped smiling since Nico’d stepped out from the shadows. It was almost as if… but no, that couldn’t be.

“What’s making you so happy anyway? It’s just camp.”

“Yeah. At some point.” Jason had no desire to go anywhere just yet, but he knew he would soon. After all, his position at this point was slightly unique, so it was a respect thing to go speak to the head of the camp. But he had time. After all, it wasn’t often he got to spend time with Nico without anyone else interrupting or the boy disappearing. Even with how close they had gotten, Jason found each moment special. 

“You never know, something could have happened in all those months. Boredom can be a dangerous enemy.” 

Jason snorted, finally finding the will to dim the smile as he shook his head. “I would have thought that’s a warrior thing. Why, what did you think of first?” The Roman jokes had slowed over the last year, but Nico’s comment reminded him that it was likely those were going to go away. At least it was better than some of the Lares sneering ‘graecus’ at him. That was just awkward and significantly less well intentioned. 

➞ Nico was caught completely off guard by Jason’s assault. And that’s what it was: an assault. An assault of bear-hugs and over enthusiasm. Nico tried to be mad about it, but he failed pretty spectacularly. Could you blame him? Jason was one of his best friends (holy Hades, Nico has best friends!!!) and he’d been gone for weeks.

So, Nico let Jason hug him. He might’ve even hugged back a little bit, but only because he missed him. The hug went on a bit longer than normal though, which made Nico start to question things. When Jason pulled back, Nico purposefully fiddled with his shirt to distract himself a bit.

“Sounds like everything is situation normal in New Rome, then,” Nico said. He’d heard the same things from the girls themselves. Part of him didn’t want to visit them soon just to drive them crazy, but he knew he’d be shadowtravelling out there first chance he got. He missed his sisters. 

Nico gave Jason a small smile, looking up at him. “It’s good to see you too, Grace,” he said. “Now everyone will have someone else to annoy all the time.” Not that Nico really meant it, but he couldn’t just dole out compliments without saying something sarcastic. He practically had an inability to do so. 

“You might want to be careful. You grin like that for too much longer and your face will stick.”

“Basically. I’ll have to give a full report to Chiron as well at some point, but there’s no rush.” Which reminded him of the bags he had dropped so unceremoniously. He took a few steps back so he could loop the strap over his shoulder, momentarily thankful that he didn’t have anything breakable in there. (You couldn’t break brownies after all, and they were safely in a tin, and beyond that it was just clothes. Which also cushioned the brownies. So it was fine).

He chuckled, running his hand through his hair as he did so. “Leo hasn’t been trying out too many of his inventions on you has he? It doesn’t look like you’re missing any important parts.” He made a show of checking Nico over as if to confirm that nothing was seriously wrong before meeting his eyes again.

He didn’t mind the others ‘annoying’ him, not when he was here. Leo made him laugh far more than he pissed Jason off, and even with their recent breakup, he and Piper were still friends. Percy and Jason always had a tumultuous relationship, but usually after blowing off some steam they were back to the friendly competition that tended to characterize their dynamic. After all, there weren’t too many other people he could fight with and be sure they were about evenly powered. 

➟ It had been weeks.

Weeks!

Weeks since Jason had left on whatever new thing he had to take care of. Nico understood that he had responsibilities as Pontifex and an ex-Praetor. Really, he got it. Hell, Nico had responsibilities of his own: namely, in Hades itself. Though, he still found it odd that his dad’s realm was named after him. Olympus wasn’t called “Zeus.” But, whatever. Far be it from him to understand the way the gods ran things. It was just his job to go along with it all.

Which is why he didn’t do much when Jason left. He missed him, sure. But he had things he could be doing. He hung out with Will in the infirmary some, but that was always awkward when the other Apollo campers started asking them why they broke up. He trained in the Arena; listened to Percy and Annabeth squabble over stupid things. Iris-messaged Hazel to check up on her and Reyna and Frank.

None of that kept his attention for long though. Especially as Jason’s home-coming day got closer. He might have been keeping track of the date just so he’d be the first to welcome Jason back. Nico wasn’t anything if not thorough.

Which is why he is now hiding in the shadows of the treeline that grew along the boundary to camp. He was waiting on Jason to get back, but didn’t want anyone to see him waiting for Jason to get back. Percy would surely start teasing him, and Will would probably go on another tirade about how Nico shouldn’t hide in shadows it’s not healthy. 

As soon as Jason showed up, Nico smiled. An actual smile. He found out that he can do those quite well these days, when he tries. He watched as Jason walked into camp. The son of Zeus didn’t seem to be concerned with finding anyone, as he was just walking down the hill. Nico tracked him with his eyes, and was just about to go follow him when Jason turned, calling him out.

“Yes, it is,” Nico replied, stepping out of the shadows. “You’re back.”

Jason burst into a full grin as soon as he heard the familiar voice, dropping his bag as he turned toward the sound. “Nico!” He had no idea how long Nico had been watching him, or if he had just snuck up on him to see how close he could get before startling him, but Jason didn’t care much either way. The important fact was that he was there.

It only took a few steps before Jason had closed the distance and swept the other boy into a huge hug. “Yeah, I just got in.” Jason gave himself a moment more before he stepped back, allowing himself to look at Nico and also give the other boy a little space. Over the past year they’d become better friends, and Nico was more comfortable with contact, but Jason was careful never to push his limits. Even hugging without asking was more than he would have done not too long ago.