north

x, ribcage

Nico sat with Annabeth in the Big House ready to tear his hair out in frustration. She had papers and maps strewn over the old round table. Nico sat uncomfortably beside her while she muttered and traced lines with her finger. Percy had been missing a week. They spent every waking minute trying to figure out where he could possibly have gone, and why. Whatever suggestions he gave were shot down, when Annabeth even bothered to respond. He understood her worry, more than she could know. But he was reaching the end of his patience.

"He's not with his mother, is he?" Nico asked.

She rolled her eyes. "No. Sally was the first person I talked to. She said she'd let me know if he showed up."

He scratched his head. "He's not on a quest, is he? Did he maybe start one and forget to tell anyone?" That was not beyond the realm of possibility. Percy was well-meaning, and it was entirely possible he hopped on a random quest with some demigods that needed help. His heart couldn't help it.

Annabeth glared at him. "He wouldn't do that. He would tell me."

A sharp pain hit Nico right in his heart. This hurt enough without her rubbing it in. "I'm trying to help, Annabeth," he gritted. "There isn't much I can do when you're just sitting there talking to yourself and brushing me off every time I--"

She had already stopped listening to him. Another curve on the map of New York grabbed her attention. He swallowed hard, trying to resist the urge to sink into the shadows. Percy was in trouble, he reminded himself. Percy saved him plenty of times. He had to do something to pay him back. He had to erase the debt between them.

Maybe then he could move on for good.

Spending time with Annabeth was certainly not helping. She was frustrating to be around in general (and feeling that way made him guilty enough), especially in her panicked state. Nico's shoulders tensed a little more with each one-sided conversation.

He stared at one of the many maps and his attention was drawn to the west coast. He thought about Hazel and that helped calm him. He wanted to see her again. His shame kept him away from Camp Half-Blood, but his guilt kept luring him back. Camp Jupiter had become the closest thing to a home, but no one trusted him. No one quite knew what to do with him whenever he turned up. He only stayed around because of his father's vague prophetic commands.

And Jason.

Nico remembered his goodbye to Jason and tried not to slam his head into the table, lest he make a mess of Annabeth's "organized chaos". The memory was heavy and conflicting. But he thought about it. Let it play out. Tried to embrace it. Jason hadn't been disgusted or angry. A little shocked, but he smiled. And it wasn't a polite praetor smile. It was the smile he reserved for Nico alone. It was a gamble. Perhaps the start of a positive change in their relationship and his own acceptance.

He was just beginning to smile himself when a cold hand ripped his heart from his chest.

The fist squeezing him forced him into a chair he barely landed on. He lost his breath and his pulse quickened. His entire chest ached; the force had torn a gaping hole in his chest. His heart. A piece of him disappeared. An important presence was completely missing in the ether. Not dead, but... gone.

Jason was gone.

No ghost, no bones. He was irreversibly absent.

He let his fear build, consuming him. He started edging into the shadows. He didn't spare Annabeth a glance when he disappeared; he knew it would be a while before she even noticed he was missing. A fact settled in his stomach, as concrete as the disappearances.