The Real World || Percy Jackson Olympians Fanfiction (2)

Chapter 13

Willow helped me into the bath and then got to work on cleaning the sick. For a girl so young, she was actually very responsible and mature. It was painful talking to her, looking at her, thinking about her, when she shared the same name as my best friend...

Looking at the girl knelt on the floor, I could even see a resemblance between them. They had the same fair hair, the same kind smile, the same gentleness with everything they do. They both saw beauty in everything, you could see it just in the way they moved.

I dunked my head under the boiling hot water, tring to wash away the fogginess in my mind. Feeling had slowly come back to my hands and feet, which made me relax a little bit.

After about twenty minutes, when the water was turning cold and my skin was going wrinkled, Nico banged on the door.

"Okay Lib, Willow, I think that's long enough. Willow, can you help her get dressed please?" He called through the wood.

"Yeah!" She replied, picking up a towel.

Slowly, I stood up and hopped out of the bath and onto the cold tiled flooring. Willow handed me the towel, which I great fully wrapped around my shriveled body, then set to work with handing me some clothes. After we had finished, I ended up wearing: leggings under a pair of long jogging bottoms, a vest top, a T-shirt, a jumper and a robe. The clothes were just thick enough to keep out a little bit of the cold sweeping though my veins.

After we had done, we exited the room. Leo and Nico were sat in the corridor, leaning against the wall. They both jumped up when they saw me and willow, taking over the job of keeping me up (until then, I had been leaning on Willow.)

"Your hair is soaking wet, we need to get it dried. Willow, do you have a hair dryer?" Leo asked whilst rubbing my arms to gt them warmer.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting in the living room with dry hair, in between Leo and Nico. Neither of them had so much as left my side since I had come out of the bath, and I only partly thought it was to provide warmth. They were probably just trying to make sure I didn't run off again.

"Whilst you were gone, we came up with a solution on how to get up the mountain," Leo started.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. We decided that we could take Willow to that airport, and pay for someone there to look after her. We have plenty of money. Then we'd just have to come back here and look through some houses for the right stuff to take with us," Nico finished.

"Yeah..." I yawned. "Sounds good. When do we leave?"

"Well we'll take Willow to the airport tomorrow and then get some supplies, so that means we should be able to leave in two days."

I nodded, excepting the fact that we wouldn't be able to go any sooner. Besides, I would need the time to prepare myself on what we would face on that mountain.

The living room which we were sitting in was rather small, so we were all sitting on the floor with our backs against the wall, and still able to feel the heat from the fire in front of us. Willow was sat a little bit away from us, silently playing with some sort of toy. I was shoulder to shoulder with my two friends, staring into the flames and thinking about everything. It was getting dark outside now, since I had left the cabin at almost lunch time, walked for about an hour and then spent another hour getting warm. Thinking about times reminded me of something.

"What's the date today?"

"Hm... It's now the... 3rd of February," Leo answered, thinking about it for a second.

I shot upwards, shock going through my body.

"Lib? Are you okay?" You could hear the worry in Nico's voice as he turned to face me. "You've gone very pale... You're not going to be sick again, are you?"

Slowly, I shook my head. I felt nauseous, but nothing was trying to escape my body. I mainly felt numb. The date that Leo had told me was very familiar, and I found myself thinking back on multiple memories.

Coming downstairs and seeing my family sitting around the table, huge smiles on their faces. Millions of cards covering every surface in the house. My parents sitting me down and introducing me to someone who would play a big part of my life. Some tiny eyelids blinking open for the first time as I was introduced to my little brother.

"Libellus, you're scaring us..." Leo informed me frantically.

I gasped, realizing I had stopped breathing and was running out of oxygen. My body shook as I struggled for breath, trying to breath around the huge hole that had just opened up inside my chest.

"Libellus," Nico spoke calmly into my ear, moving my hair with his breath. "Relax. Think happy thoughts. Think about you beating me and Percy back at camp. Think about finding out you got to go traveling with me and Leo, the best partners you could ever have!"

He was now sitting directly infront of me, whispering words towards my face. Nico's fingers traveled to the necklace that was still hanging around my neck. He took it between his thumb and index finger, looking at it with half closed eyes.

"Think about getting this necklace. Think about finding Willow, and how adorable she is. Think about how close we are to getting back to camp and finishing this awful quest."

Nico continued to whisper to me until my breathing returned back to normal and my body was still. Then, Leo (who had been watching all of this from the side) announced that he would go and make us all some food and a nice warm drink. He took Willow out as well, making an excuse that she had to show him where everything was. Me and Nico were alone.

"I never pictured you as the jewelry type," I looked up and met Nico's eyes, showing him that I had guessed what he was implying.

"Not usually, but this necklace reminded me of someone. I think she deserved it. Heck, anyone that can beat the amazing ghost king in a duel deserves a necklace!" He laughed.

"Thank you, it's beautiful."

Nico blushed and dropped his head. "Just like you."

I gaped at him, wondering if I had heard him correctly. Death boy called me beautiful? An awkward silence hung between us, until I placed my hand over Nicos' (which were folded on his lap) and made a confession.

"I shouldn't have this necklace, Nico. It is beautiful and thoughtful, as are the books, which is why they are wasted on me. I'm not beautiful, I never have been. My best friend was always the beautiful one... Her name was Willow. I can't remember the last time I saw her, or if I ever will again."

I took a deep breath. "Only one other person ever called me beautiful. But I can't even be with him on his birthday. I don't even know if my brother is still alive, let alone if he is out there somewhere, smiling and enjoying his day without worrying about me."

No tears ran down my cheeks, even though my brain wanted to cry. No sadness filled my heart, for I was just numb. Nico understood me though; he understood what it was like to overcome the sadness of potentially losing a sibling and instead be empty inside. He understood what I needed, and this time it wasn't me hugging a broken boy in front of a fire, for the loss of his loved one. This time, it was the other way around.