The Ghost King

scar smiled slightly. now her moment of pure relief had passed, and she was calmer, though still not entirely calmed. “yeah, they told us they sent people after you. i was just… i was worried about you. yeah, i can tell you’re not now. but when dead people started showing up again, it was a bit nerve wracking.”

“Well I’m back so...it’s all good.”  Nico was still terrible at trying to comfort people; he put it down to the fact he was - quite literally - related to death and that death wasn’t exactly comforting.  “Didn’t mean to scare you like that, promise.”

“Well that’s rude.  It’s actually very nice most months out of the year.”

slightly embarrassed by the show of affection for him, she pulled a bit away from him. as much as the two argued, nico was important to her, and if he died, or got hurt, scarlett would be devastated. “i’m sorry, i just… you were missing, and no one had any idea what happened to you… i was worried that you were…”

In all honesty Nico was surprised by how torn Scarlett seemed to have been over his disappearance; he didn’t really think anyone would particularly care save for maybe Percy, but he wasn’t here at the moment anyway.  “Uh...yeah, we were in the Underworld.  Dad decided that’d somehow be a good idea for us.  Still a bit unsure as to why but I know more than I did before.  I wasn’t uh, you know....”

the girls head shot in the direction of the familiar voice, and she almost immediately teared up when she saw nico. despite his words, because let’s be real, when does she ever listen to him if it’s not what she wants to do, she ran to him and threw her arms around him. as much as she hated to admit it, she’d missed him, and had been terrified that something bad had happened to him. “you’re okay… you’re alright…”

Nico had just turned back to the door of his cabin so he didn’t realize Scar had started running towards him until her arms were holding herself to him.  Confused by the sudden attack of affection Nico stumbled back a step to keep his balance.  Eyes wide, his arm came up to return the hug.  “Yeah...yeah I’m fine....  Promise.”

scar headed back into camp after a few days away, smiling slightly. she hadn’t wanted to leave in the midst of everything going on, but her grandmother had begged her to come down for the weekend and see them for her grandfather’s birthday, and she hadn’t been able to make herself say no. “so, does anyone wanna update me on what i missed?”

Even though Nico and his siblings had been freed from the Underworld a good few days ago at this point, it wasn’t until earlier that day that he had finally arrived back at camp.  He’d stayed behind in hopes of trying to dig up any further information he could find on the deceased campers that were coming back to camp.  Just as he was going back to his cabin - clothes bedraggled and eyes exhausted - he heard Scarlett.  “Please find someone else, I’m not exactly up to telling stories right now.”

“Liv, you forget I have one single ghost friend who doesn’t particularly care for rules,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes.  “Anyway, we may as well get moving before we waste any more time.”

“Come up with another plan,” Nico said with a shrug of his shoulders.  By that point Nico figured they’d at least come up with some inkling of a new plan that they could put into action.  “Like I said before, I can probably ask around and see if any of the ghosts or skeletons know anything.  Whether they’ll cooperate is another question, but that’s worth a shot too.”

Nico returned the smile, though as per usual it was a bit small and somewhat timid.  “It all depends on whether or not we catch her in a good mood,” Nico replied.  “Though if anything we can always try to say that it’d be in her best interest to get us out of here as fast as possible.”  The plan wasn’t exactly Nico’s favorite either, but at the moment they really weren’t given many choices.  “If you want to stay behind, Irina, then that’s fine.  We aren’t going to force you to come along...well Liv might.”

“Thank you.  See?  This is why Rosie is my favorite.”  Nico gave an appreciative nod Rosie’s direction before turning back to the other two.  “Well you’re guess is as good as mine.  If anything we could try looking for Persephone?  She might be able to get Dad to tell us something.”

“First of all, rude,” Nico directed at Liv and Irina.  “Second of all, if you don’t want to split up that’s fine but it may or may not take longer to hunt down the mighty Lord of the Dead.”  It wasn’t typical of Nico to be so bitter towards his father - in fact more often than not he got along with Hades - but the fact that Hades had held out on telling Nico even the slightest bit of information so long...well it irked him.

“You know it’s kind of hurtful that you all keep commenting on how this should be weird,” Nico said, looking away from the ferret now seated around his neck.  “Well if we really want to find our piss baby of a father then we can try splitting up if you want.  It’s not like we’re in danger here.”

“We’re not on our own.  I’m friends with ghosts and skeletons, remember?”  To be quite honest Nico was probably more friendly than appropriate with the dead but that was to be expected wouldn’t it?  he was the King of Ghosts and an exceptionally lonely boy after all.  “Chances are people at camp will notice in a few days at best, especially if we all vanished at the same time.”  Nico knelt down to scoop up a small skeletal ferret that stopped at his feet and pet its rather small skull.  “Hey buddy,” her murmured to it.

{TXT: Nico}: There’s a bird in our cabin and I feel like you know why it’s there.

Nico felt a small weight come off his chest at the appearance of Rosie.  Though he’d been more than 100% sure she was here too, it was nice to actually have her there with them.  The small family all together once again.  “I’ve been trying to get him to tell me what the hell is going on for the past several months,” Nico said.  “He’s not going to budge.  He’s being unnervingly quiet about things going on around here.”

          “ if the three of us are here, i’m sure she is too, don’t worry liv we’ll find her. ”

Nico’s curiosity got the better of him.  “Why was he upset with you two?”  He doubted that any trouble they got into with their dad was the reason they were stuck here as well.  “Irina’s right,” Nico said with a nod.  “Chances are Rosie’s here just like the rest of us.  If anything she might just be somewhere else in the castle.”