Disable Your Blorbo

Sadie didn't know how she messed up her ankle, there were lots of instances where the injury could have come from but she wasn't sure what exactly. Maybe she stepped weird going down the stairs, maybe she moved wrong during training. She wasn't sure all she knew was that walking hurt like hell because her ankle felt like it was breaking every time she stepped on it.

Jaz said she had something called hypermobility; her joints were extra bendy but that also meant they could bend out of place. She knew she was bendy she had taken gymnastics for a few years as a kid but had gotten injured by too much, her bones always seem to twist out of place, so her grandparents took her out turns out she wasn't just a clumsy and silly kid, there was an actual medical term for it, take that Gran.

But now, as she sat on her chair in the living room, waiting for Walt to be done doing a little study session with Jaz and Carter so they could hang out, she felt like she was going insane, she couldn't move, well she could but walking hurt too much but Gods, if she had to sit still for one more minute she was going to implode.

She stood up wincing a little from the pain but it wasn't that bad, that was a lie it hurt like hell but she could deal with it, she'd saved the world, she could handle it.

“You're not supposed to be standing up.” She turned to Felix, the blonde boy was wearing a penguin jumper of all things, because of course he was. He was staring at her, she hadn't even noticed him sneak up on her, how long had he been sitting and drawing at the table behind her?

“I feel fine,” She assured him, Felix was a sweet kid but she did not want him telling Carter she was using her messed up ankle because she was pretty Carter told all the other initiates to tell him if she was because he was “worried about her” and “didn't want her to get more hurt” and all those other annoying older brother concerns he had.

“Carter told me to get him or Zia or Walt if you stood up.” Dammit Carter. 

She would never admit this to him out loud but a part of her enjoyed that he would worry about her so much, Gran and Gramps had worried about her, of course, but most of the time it was because she was causing problems or doing something wrong, and their dad had worried about her but he was never around. It felt weirdly nice to be worried over, but she would never tell Carter any of this unless it was a life or death situation, obviously, goodness knows the boy did not need more encouragement to be a protective older brother but it did feel nice to know someone always had her back, even if it was annoying sometimes.

“I feel like I'm fine, really,” she promised, trying to stand in a way so as to put as little pressure as was possible on her bad ankle without making it too obvious to Felix. She knew the kid was worried about her and it was sweet. She wondered if this is how Carter felt when she pestered him about him getting hurt, she wondered if this is what it was like to be an older sibling. 

But, as sweet, as Felix’s concerned was, if she had to sit in that chair doing nothing but sitting with her own thoughts any longer she was going to start ripping her hair out. She was not built to sit still and the fact that she got injured easily and took longer to heal seemed to be some fucked up punishment when combined with her ADHD.

The town was bustling in the midday.

Bianca held Nico’s hand, leading him along so he would have a grounding sensation to pull him through the streets.

Suddenly he tapped rapidly on her arm, trying to pull free.

“Princess Bianca, please do not stop in the middle of the walkway—“

“NICO!”

He was darting off, out of sight already.

Even with the trained guards encasing them, Bianca was the first to run after—and quickest.

Not as fast as Nico though. Never as fast.

Searching through every face and every mop of curly hair, she was frantically searching. Half of the guards were keeping eyes on her—the heir—and the other half searching for the younger prince, just as hectically.

Until—there he was!

She found him signing to a blond boy, onlookers staring.

She only caught part of their conversation.

“—I will translate for you.” Nico signed.

Nico flapped his hands twice, using broader gestures. He pointed to the people, then made a ‘talking’ gesture before gesturing into his own ears and through his hands to the other boy—maybe a year older.

One lady was the first to angrily pipe up.

“Tell that boy to give me back what he stole from me!”

Nico’s eyes widened. He tugged at Will’s sleeve for attention—something he always did, whether they were already paying attention or not. It was more like a precursor to speaking.

”Did you steal her things?” Nico pointed to the woman.

The deaf boy shook his head rapidly. ”No! No, I bought it.”

Nico pulled his sketchbook from his satchel. In uneven handwriting he wrote ’He said he bought it.’

Many seemed wiser than to raise their voices at the silent, flittering prince. But few did not as they raised their voices in argument.

Nico did something Bianca was familiar with. He took a step behind the taller blond boy and plugged his own ears. Did not ask them to stop, just distanced himself.

The blond made a ‘shush’ gesture and helped Nico cover his ears. Bianca stepped forward when she finally fought her way through.

“What is the matter here?”

Everyone fell silent.

The lady from before spoke up. “That William boy stole my items I paid for.”

“Where is your proof? What do you claim he stole?”

“I’ve just left the jewelers, where I paid for my necklace. He took my package and left, ignoring me as I called to him! It took this entire crowd gathering to make him stop, he is a thief!”

Bianca looked to the boy, who met no one’s eyes and everyone’s lips. Something she knew well from her own experience with her brother, but for a different reason.

Anxiety was beading off of Will in waves of sweat and jittery signs, every one of his explanations either ignored or not understood.

“Ma’am!” Someone yelled behind her. “Miss Rovinski! You left your parcel!”

She looked back, eyes wide and startled. “Excuse me?”

“Yes, you left before I could hand it to you—is everything alright here?”

Nico was signing as rapidly as he could, uncoordinated fingers stumbling over themselves more than usual with his speed.

William was hugging the accused brown package close to his chest, tucking it under his arm when he needed to say something back.

“Are we done here?” Bianca asked, taking note of the guard that were accumulating and knowing they would sweep the siblings away any moment.

The lady nodded wordlessly, bowing slightly in a sort of apology. Bianca almost scoffed.

The bodyguards, now in formation, started herding them away. Nico flapped his arms and stomped his foot, tugging at his hair as he made a high pitched sound. He was still trying to talk to this Will boy, who Bianca saw sign his name in the corner of her eye.

“Nicoló, we must go.” She urged. “Papa is waiting on us.”

Nico shook his head, and Will let him grab his shirt sleeve.

Will tapped Nico’s cheek gently, making him look back. ”I have to go, I will see you soon? At the library maybe?”

”Park.” Nico replied.

Will nodded. ”I will see you at the park, then?”

Nico didn’t let go of Will’s sleeve still. Both of the older teens were confused at his persistent refusal.

Bianca realized he wasn’t just holding on, but was running his thumb tip along the lace-like stitch work. Will looked to where Bianca was.

Will made an ‘oh’ sound, beginning to shrug off the jacket.

”Bring it back at the park, okay?”

Nico nodded vigorously, putting the large thing on himself and letting the warmth soak in, even though it was hot outside.

The black haired boy waved with one hand, bouncing on his toes and lightly flapping the other until Bianca took it once more.

Bianca, even though they’d certainly find trouble for running off and causing a ruckus, was grinning ear to ear uncontrollably.

It wasn’t something she expected that day, but…

“Wow, traveling must be so hard for you—being like, partially deaf and stuff.”

Sure. Yeah. It was difficult sometimes, being deaf in one ear and with a hearing aid that distorted sound half the time.

But you know what is more difficult than that?

Nico di Angelo.

“Okay, I packed the BiPAP—“

“Nico.” Will interrupted. “I see the tube right there on the nightstand.”

Nico looked over. “Fuuuuck.”

“Did you ever decide on cane or crutches? Did you find the right pillows for the flight and make sure you had your snacks? Did you get mom’s present packed?”

“Will!” Nico whined, falling back on the bed. “I wanna go to sleeeep.”

“You’re the one that kept procrastinating packing until the night before.” He retorted.

He was making sure medications were sorted for the week in secure and clearly labeled containers. God forbid they had to have another whole ordeal with ‘unlabeled medication’ in their bags.

Nico slid to the floor pitifully. “I’m gonna call Percy and Jason. Or Hazel. Or Reyna.”

“You know that Hazel and Reyna would not be able to make it here in the next—“ Will looked at the alarm clock. “45 minutes before we’re supposed to go to bed?”

Nico sighed forlornly. “Fine. I’ll put the stupid tube in the stupid bag cause I need to fucking breathe…”

He suddenly froze.

“Fuck.”

***

Their flight was 2:30, so they needed to arrive at 11:30, which meant they needed to get in the car at 11, which meant they needed to be getting dressed by 10:30, which meant they needed to shower at 9:30 and 10, which meant they needed to eat breakfast at 8:30…

Will was waking up at 6, Nico at 7, because any earlier and he either wouldn’t function the entire day or… well, his Zolpidem wouldn’t let him function.

Everything was packed that he could, and it was around 8 that he finished. Nico had woken up (thankfully) (he could sleep like the dead) and done his part and was now cooking breakfast.

“Mm, smells good.” Will stood behind Nico, stealing his crutches to lean on the counter in favor of holding up his weight himself.

Nico laughed as Will purposefully pushed on ticklish spots, giggling while he was still trying to flip the omelette.

“Oh my gods, Will, you’re evil!”

Will moved one arm to be settled lower on Nico’s waist, pulling him flush. “But you loooove me!”

They finished breakfast in time for both to shower, but Nico had asked Will to help him wash his hair. Will didn’t mind, but it told him what kind of day it would be.

With all of the mercy in the world, Nico no longer made it his life goal to push until he broke and only ask for help after he was shattered across the floor. Now he asked for help when the pressure was getting heavy and he didn’t want to crack.

Still, though. Nico prided himself on being independent. Even though he was wisely conserving energy, Will was anxious seeing he didn’t think he could do it himself without paying a bigger cost.

They both showered, packed the remaining toiletries, got Nico’s cane folded and wheelchair packed, and were ready to leave on time.

“Whew. Okay.” Will settled into the drivers seat and adjusted his mirrors, ruffling his hair up when he caught a glimpse of it.

“Triple check,” He confirmed first, looking over to Nico. Nico huffed but knew it was probably wise, considering they both had ADHD…

“Neck pillow?”

“Yep.” Nico patted it at his side.

“Lumbar?”

“Yep.”

“Two extra hoodies?”

“Yep.”

“Noise cancelling headphones?”

“Mhm.” He pulled them from his hoodie pocket.

“Did you grab your bag with the snacks?”

Nico looked out the window quickly, scratching his scalp. “Uhh…”

Will put the car back in park. “I’ll be right back.”

They arrived at the airport about twenty minutes later than Will had wanted, because they had to turn around two more times for things they forgot. One was Nico’s protein shake that he had every morning for the additional definitely-non-suspicious-vitamins-and-minerals-blended-into-it-that-would-not-be-good-to-sit-for-an-entire-two-weeks, and another because Will forgot his hearing aid extra batteries.

But they made it. And it was security time.

“Hello, sir, is this who you’re traveling with today?”

“Yes ma’am.” Nico replied easily, letting her stall them at the metal detector.

“Are you able to stand briefly or do you need to stay seated?”

“I can stand,” Nico said, “But I have a metal rod in my ankle that is probably gonna set off your thing.”

“Okay, no problem.” She grabbed the chair and wheeled it around, passing it to the person who would swab it. Will was already anxious and he hadn’t even stepped through the scanner—he was ready for the hustle-bustle of getting all of their things through scanners and not letting them disappear.

Nico went through first and Will was so focused on making sure he got through without tripping he didn’t hear the man on his left asking for his backpack.

“Oh, right—sorry, I’m deaf in my left ear.” Will explained quickly and the guy laughed, clapping him on the back friendly.

“All good mate. I was wonderin’ why I was practically yelling’ and you weren’t hearing me.”

Will went through just in time to help balance Nico off his bad leg, keep track of the BiPAP and make sure it didn’t get placed directly on the X-ray tray…

“No, he can’t take his shoes off easily, are you able to do an alternate method?” Will said to the lady as she asked Nico, who was trying to shuffle his headphones on.

Will couldn’t blame him. It was loud. It was the week before Christmas, they were in the middle of the airport, and it was like every child in the vicinity decided now was a great time to cry. Will’s hearing aids didn’t help.

The attendant came over at the same time. “Here’s your chair, sir.”

Jason was not having a very good day. He had gotten bitten by a bug in his sleep last night, a spider apparently according to Coach Hedge; not poisonous but irritating as hell, he could feel the bites rubbing against his shirt and it was driving him insane.

And speaking of his shirt, his awful wretched shirt, he had by accident grabbed the only shirt that didn't have the tag on the neck cut off, so not only was his shirt irritating the bug bites on his back he also had a tag on his neck driving him insane.

A part of him wished being skinned alive didn't hurt and wouldn't kill him because Gods what he wouldn't give to not have skin right now because he could feel all of his skin and he needed it off right now.

Leo, his dear beloved friend whom he loved very much and was not going to scream at or electrocute, would not stop tapping things with his utensils as they ate breakfast. It was already bad enough that there were the sounds of people eating breakfast and Leo was not helping.

Jason was not going to scream or pull his hair out or electrocute this boat. He's a Roman soldier. Roman soldiers are well behaved and Roman soldiers did not scream because they could feel shirt tags on the back of their neck and bug bites on their back.

He got up and simply just left the dining room, not even bothering to finish his breakfast or say anything, he needed to leave that room, he needed quiet.

He was zoned out for most of the walk to his room, trying to focus on anything but the fact that he could feel his skin and the bug bites and the tag on his neck.

The minute he was alone in his room he immediately took the shirt off and threw it at the wall. His whole body felt tense. He felt like he was hyperventilating, He might have been he wasn't sure, he felt like he couldn't breathe but was also breathing too much but also not breathing enough but also breathing too much.

Everything was too much and he needed to do something, he needed to do something to get this energy out,

everything was too much,

everything was too much,

everything was too much-

He didn't realize he was biting his arm until he felt his teeth start to sink deeper into his flesh and the bruise starting to form, he hadn't done that since he was a kid. Anytime this overwhelmed hit him before he would be able to train or attack things or just throw things but there wasn't anything to throw or attack or to train with like that on the Argo II. Nothing he could completely destroy without upsetting Leo, and potentially the others.

He carefully pried his mouth away from his own arm. There was a bruise already starting to form; red and ugly and angry, the indents of his own teeth deep in his arm, luckily he had managed to not break skin. Before, when he was little and used to do this used to do this more, he would just wear a long sleeve shirt after getting it bandaged up by the medics but the idea of putting on another shirt sounded like hell, the bug bites still itched but he was refusing to scratch at them, it seemed almost funny to him; he would bite his own arm till it bruised but he wouldn't scratch at bug bites. His logic seem to flawed even to himself but his brain still felt too overwhelmed to actually process anything.

He wanted to cry and curl up, he missed when he was small and could curl up on the older legionnaires. Being raised in the legion wasn't great, being branded at four definitely sucked, but he always had someone to turn to, someone to comfort him, he had been to legion's baby even when he was no longer the youngest kid.

“OW!”

“Quit being sensitive, it doesn’t even hurt!”

“FUCK YOU! YES IT DOES!”

“Quit being a bitch!”

“That’s offensive to bitches!”

“You can’t even feel like 85% of this leg!”

“FUCK. YOU.”

Jason and Percy were helping stretch his hamstrings after a looong day. Will was gone getting pizza.

Nico was in the Poseidon cabin’s hangout room. In an armchair. Suffering.

“Fuck you guys.” He buried his head in his arms.

Jason was finishing counting to fifteen and let go. Percy rubbed his hands together conspiratorially. Like a fucking fly.

“Guess what time is ittt.”

“Wait. It’s Friday. Fuck. No.”

Nico scooted back in horror. “Please no.”

Percy cackled and began pulling the PT mat out. “It’s PUSHING TIME!”

Pushing time was Nico’s least favorite time. Well. No. It was both his least and favorite.

Least because the point if it was chucking shit and Nico’s face and hoping he caught it and trying to push him over to the floor.

But also, it was kind of fun. Everyone sat on the floor together and it was one of the only semi fun parts of PT.

Technically it was supposed to be balance this and core that, but really, who was counting?

(Will. That’s who was counting. Even when he joined in on the fun he was always subconsciously making sure nothing was abnormal)

(Nico tried. And failed when he had to get revenge with balled up socks.)

(Who’s to say he didn’t take his own socks off to throw at Percy? Shh.)

Will walked in the door to Nico crisscross on the floor with an entire basket of… things… by his side, the three friends basically playing competitive hot potato.

There were five ball-like-things being tossed at any given moment, and whoever was the one to not catch and toss it properly got pummeled with whatever was closest in reach. Fun times.

“Pizzaaa!” Will called.

Percy jumped up and was yelling “Nico, hurry up!” While he was transferring into his wheelchair.

“Remember when I said I took back chopping your balls off? I take that back too. You’re being castrated with the pizza cutter.”

Percy yelped and darted to the kitchen space with Will, Jason beside him with a hand ready to help lift or move.

He’d had to get on the couch and then the chair, but he was on wheels and ready to run… or, well, ride.

Percy had already eaten an entire slice when they made it in. That pig.

“Good PT?” Will raised a brow with a grin.

Nico threw his head back with a groan. “You keep leaving me to suffer with imbeciles. Two rompicoglionis.”

Will snorted, knowing the Italian name. Percy and Jason were none the wiser.

“Come get your fuckass cheese pizza, dweeb.”

Percy liked to retaliate such things by using slang Nico didn’t know either.

Nico sighed and rolled forward to steal a slice. He sat himself in his normal spot next to the stove, and looked around at everyone else.

Percy, like usual, was on the counter. Fully. Feet and all. He would not dare such thing in the Hades cabin.

Will was leaning on the counter with his own pizza slice—on a plate, like a normal person.

Jason was on the floor with his leg stretched out, letting the joint chill.

None of them were without issues, Nico pondered in his typical dark-humored fashion. This thought came at the same time as Percy dropped his inhaler off the counter with a yelp.

It was quickly followed by Jason’s “PERCY! This is the third time this week!"

***

“GOOO NICOOO!!”

“You got this!”

“POP THAT ASS!”

“Carefully, please. Still do. Will would probably like that.”

Nico was using his parallel bars for walking practice, Will holding the gait belt behind him.

Will joined in the fray. “He’s right, I wouldn’t mind that either.” He smirked.

Nico removed a precious balancing hand to swat Will where he could. “Horny bastard.”

Percy wolf whistled while Jason ew’d. Nico stuck his tongue out at them, but made it to the end of his second rep.

When he sat down to end, Percy hopped up and ruffled his hair—to which Jason shoved Percy aside for bullying and proceeded to do the exact same thing. Because it was fine when he did it.

Nico bit his wrist with a smirk that could be mistaken for Nemesis’. Jason whined and hid behind Percy.

“Ohh, you poor thing.” Percy exaggeratively patted his forearm like a mourning mother. Then pinched Nico’s cheek with narrow avoidance of his own biting.

Clarisse wasn't hurt, she had no injuries, she was just sore. That's what Will said anyway and she wasn't about to argue about medical things with the one medic son of Apollo they had left. But gods, she hurt.

She felt sore and her bones felt heavy and she felt too tense and too loose and she felt exhausted.

“Clarisse?” Chris, her boyfriend whom she loved dearly, called her name and like the good and loving girlfriend she was she flipped him off without even turning to look at him.

“So mature,” he teased, coming over to sit next to her on her bed, where she lay face down and under her blankets. She just whined.

“Want me to get Will?” He rubbed her back soothingly, making her melt into the bed.

“‘M not hurt, ‘m just being a little bitch,” she explained and Chris tsked, he hated when she would say things like that, hated when she would insult herself because she was injured or in pain.

“Is one of the injuries acting up again?”

“if you start on that ‘sports injuries can cause chronic pain and technically capture the flag is a sport’ nonsense I will punt you out of this cabin injuries- hypothetical injuries be damned.”

“Fine, fine.” he rolled his eyes and paused for a moment “if one of your injuries- ow!” he whined when she smacked his arm. “Sorry, if one of your hypothetical injuries was acting up, what would you want me to do to help?”

“Ambrosia?” she glanced at him, trying to give puppy eyes.

“Does Ambrosia actually help when you hurt like this?”

She looked away burying her face back in her pillows and mumbled “… no.”

“I bet we could get Silena to convince Beckendorf to let all of us watch something in his room and just hang out, if you want," he suggested while running one of his hands through her hair, which was incredibly unfair to her because how the hell was she meant to think enough to answer when he was doing that?

“Just me, you, Silena, an’ Beckendorf?” she asked, leaning into his touch.

“yeah, just us,” he promised.

Clarisse just whined “everything hurts, I have no clue why.. wait.” She paused for a moment and lifted her head to look at the calendar and then immediately shoved her head back in her pillows and groaned. “Nevermind I know why.”

“Why?”

“I'm bleeding out.”

“You're bleeding ou- oh, your period” he sighed, trying to will his heart rate to return to normal. “You know you could phrase that in a way where it doesn't make it sound like you're dying.”

“Tell that to my uterus ‘cause it seems to think I’m fucking dying by the way it's makin’ me feel,” she grumbled.