My Moonbow (Solangelo)

Chapter 8

Nico had left to the armory to polish his sword. He really needed to stop thinking about Will. It was starting to get annoying.

But how could he, though? After all those cute things he had said to him, how could he not smile at the very thought of him?

Will was reeeeally making it hard for Nico to keep distance.

He took his stygian iron sword, and started polishing it carefully. As it wasn't celestial bronze, it took more time and care for it to look, well, presentable.

Nico wasn't much of a shield person, so he didn't even bother to polish one. They were big and heavy, and they made it terribly tedious to run –or to shadow travel.

He was planning on staying a little longer in the armory and give his sword a last bit of care, but some Hermes kids arrived, joking and laughing out loud, so he just picked a helmet and headed out with his sword in his other hand.

The Hades cabin was as he had left it a week before. A week. Now that he thought of it, it was a little too much for just a broken wrist. A day was normal, two days was fine, but a week was overreacting. Maybe Will did want him around.

The thought made him smile, though he hurried to push it away. He wasn't going to give himself hopes up. Besides, it was possible Will had only wanted him that whole week in the infirmary to keep an eye on him. Yes, it was probably that.

He laid his sword and shield next to the door and closed it behind him. The air felt slightly heavy, and it was even darker than it usually was inside, as the few windows in the cabin were covered by curtains. All the beds were made except for one. Nico's. The black and red sheets were thrown to the side, and the pillow was laying on the floor.

He sighed, and picked it up to put it back on the bed. He stretched the blankets and sat down. If he wasn't mistaken, he had eaten breakfast around 11:00 a.m., and spent about an hour and a half in the armory after that. Which meant it was just about time for lunch.

As if on cue, the horn boomed loudly, making Nico jump. Only one hour left for the game to begin. Great.

He jumped to his feet and grabbed his aviator jacket from the rack. He headed outside as he threw it over himself, and made his way to the mess hall.

He sat in his table–alone–, and reached for a plate. Even though he wasn't really hungry, a tasty-looking ravioli materialized on its surface as he held an empty glass, which quickly filled with water. 

He drank it whole in two sips and stood, grabbing his plate of ravioli and heading to the hearth, where a few other campers were making offerings to their parents. He waited until he could step in front, and poured half of the food over it. He took a deep breath, and muttered under his breath. He watched until the last bit of sauce burned, and sunk back on his seat.

He found himself doodling with some sauce over the plate, making little abstract figures and such with his head resting on his hand. His trance was broken when he heard someone snicker his name. He looked up, and caught one kid from the Apollo table looking at him. He glared, and looked away.

When he glanced back up again, brow furrowed, it was Will who was looking. Damn. The blonde looked down as he met Nico's eyes. Ashamed? Nico couldn't tell. He kept staring for a second, wondering if he'd look up again.

And he did.

It was brief, but it was enough for Nico to notice the pink on Will's cheeks. Blue eyes sparkling, lips slightly parted and and cheeks tinted pink. Nico caught his breath. Had Will always been that gorgeous? He felt his own cheeks turning warmer at the sight, and forced himself to look away.

He tried to hide he had been staring by stuffing a piece ravioli into his mouth, eyes glued to the plate. 

He didn't even know when he had eaten the last piece of his food. Just then someone next to him spoke his name.

"Hey, Nico," Will had said, and smiled at him as walked away with his siblings. Nico watched him as he left, and some of the kids around him laughed or poked at him. What was that about? Nico wondered. Why were the others making so much fun about him? Did he have something in his face? He quickly grabbed his glass of water, and checked on his reflection. Nothing. At least, nothing he could see on the uneven surface of the glass, which had re-filled.

Then what were they laughing about? Not like he cared about the other kids' opinions. But he did kind of care about Will's. 

Maybe it's nothing. He repeated to himself over and over, trying to convince his subconscious self about it, as he headed out of the eating pavilion. 

* * *

The game began at 6:00 p.m. Nothing interesting happened until 7:43.

Even though he almost begged the captain of Athena to let him go with the attack, as he usually did, Nico had been assigned to defend the south border of the forest, a couple miles away from their teams flag. It turns out she (the captain) had received a letter from Nico's doctor saying he was still hurt and shouldn't push himself do hard. Nico was starting to hate certain doctor.

But he obeyed. What else had he got to do? He went to where he was assigned, and waiter for attackers to come. 

Nothing happened for a while. He sat down on the ground and began picking grass and throwing it away. He didn't know for how long he stayed like that, with his sword laying next to him.

He just remembered when the sounds came.

It had been sudden. The sun was beginning to set, which made Nico's eyesight less reliable than usual. Something cracked a couple feet away, and he jumped to his feet, sword in hand and his senses alert.

The sound came again, this time closer, and a kid with a built complexion and a bow in hand appeared from behind one of the trees. She had been grinning, Nico could tell, but it faded quickly at the sight of the other boy.

"Di Angelo?" She snorted, clearly disappointed

Nico glared at her, and tightened his grip in his sword, trying to look intimidating. "You're not coming any closer to our flag."

He was about to charge at her when something sprinted over her.

The thing was big, and dark, with the most of its body covered with feathers. The girl let out a cry as the thing tried to bite her hair.

She turned clumsily, and started shooting blindly at the bird, with no success. Nico was frozen in place, not sure what to do. It was then his cheek started to bleed.

A sharp pain emerged from the side of his face, bringing him back to reality. His hand went instinctively to his cheek and when he looked, his fingers were tinted dark red with his own blood.

The girl was struggling to get the bird off herself, hitting and shooting in it's direction. But the thing seemed to be determined to rip her eyes off.

Nico gripped his sword tightly. He had to do something. He went over to her and brandished his sword towards the bird, provoking a piercing shriek to come out of the creature's bleak.

Wait. The bleak. Shiny, bronze colored bleak.

Oh no. Nico felt his heart skip a beat at the realization.

The thing was a Stymphalian Bird.