Don't Fade Away: A Solangelo Fanfiction 2

Chapter 15: Shared Experiences

Maria di Angelo was walking towards the old building. The one in America. This night was cold and rainy, and her scarf almost blew away.

While walking down the dark street, a stranger approached her. A man. She tried to walk past him quickly, but he stepped in front of her and held her in place with his hands.

"What's a lovely woman like you doing out here in the dark?" The man asked. His voice was slurred. He must've been drunk.

"I was just on my way home." She told him, trying to pull away.

"What's the hurry?"

"I have children I have to go home to." She paused. "And my husband. He won't be too happy to find out why I'm late."

His hands were off of her as soon as she said the word 'husband.' "Alright, alright." He said, walking away.

After he was gone she flattened her dress and continued walking. "Che pervertito." She said. Nico understood her. That meant, "What a pervert."

She continued walking towards the old building.

Nico woke up to the sound of knocking on his door. His clock read 3:33. Nico was surprised he was actually asleep by that time.

The knocking continued. Who in the Hades would knock on someone's door so early?

He got up and walked to the door, yawning. When he opened it, Rosemary was there crying.

"What's wrong?" He asked her.

She was in flannel pajamas and she was holding a blue blanket. "I had a nightmare." She cried.

Nico knew what that was like too well. "You want to talk about it inside?" He asked her.

She nodded and hopped on the bed Hazel would use next time she came to camp.

"What happened?"

She buried her face in her blanket. "I thought I was back at the Lotus place. I forgot who I was again, and when I came out again, it was even longer than the first time I was there. It was so long. And nobody was there to help me. I was all by myself."

Nico didn't really know what he was supposed to do. He definitely wasn't the best at comforting people. "I'm sorry. Nightmares are tough sometimes. It's not real, though. You won't have to worry about that place for a while, okay?"

She nodded but was still crying. "It was so scary."

Nico went to sit next to her. He gently patted her on the back.

After she had stopped crying, they talked for a while, he was trying to calm her down. She ended up falling asleep, and he put a blanket over her and he tried to go back to bed as well.

He stared at the ceiling. Rosemary was so young. How young was the youngest demigod who had ever come to camp? If she wasn't the youngest, she had to be close. Then he thought about how she was so young and already lost anybody that she was close to, whoever that may be. He remembered something Will told him once. Sometimes people with shared experiences were drawn together. Maybe, without either of them knowing at the time, they had become friends because they were these small demigod children who had already lost so much but didn't know it yet.

Maybe that was why he felt the overwhelming urge to protect her. To make sure that she didn't lose that cheerfulness and carefreeness that Nico had lost so long ago.