The Rebirth Of The Labyrinth

Nico

Nico walked back to Will, feeling like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Took you long enough." Will huffed, crossing his arms and staring at Nico.

Nico found Will very patronising. He always seemed to want to contradict everything Nico had to say, even if he was right.

And Nico was always right.

"Am I not allowed to talk to my friends?" Nico questioned, returning Will's gaze. His shaggy blond hair and blue eyes reminded Nico of Jason Grace, but the similarity stopped there. Jason was a more proper handsome, with sharp, serious features, a bit like James Bond. Will's casual atire of T-shirt and shorts made him seem like a surfer boy, like Percy.

And that's what scared Nico the most.

"Stop staring at my eyes and come with me." Will told him, grabbing his hand. Nico felt a jolt of electricity going through his arm towards his spine. He attempted to pull away, but Will refused to budge.

"I- I wasn't staring at your eyes." Nico stammered, hating to be taken off-guard like that. Will raised an eyebrow teasingly and pulled Nico with him.

"Okay, sure." He smiled sheepishly. "Would you consider them a bright blue, like a glittering, calm, clean Mediterranean ocean?"

You hit the hammer right on the nail, Nico thought.

"I'd consider them to look more like Blue Fanta." Nico retorted to him. Will huffed in fustration, but Nico had a strong feeling that he was just kidding.

They walked past the archer's field, where he saw Piper trying to do archery and utterly failing. She seemed to laugh with another Aphrodite kid as she lifted up her bow again, attempting a second time. He caught her eye, which seemed to be brown at that time, and she waved to him. Awkwardly, he waved back.

He still wasn't used to the 'kindness' thing.

Around a minute later, they got to the Big House. As usual, it was painted baby-blue with a white trim. The bronze eagle weather vane played it's wind chimes, turning into dryads as they span towards Nico's direction. Wrapping around the diameter of the Big House like a blanket was the balcony, where Chiron and Dionysus were playing Pinochle. They sat comfortably on lawn chairs.

Will walked up to them, smiling, whilst Nico was unwillingly dragged along to see them. He couldn't understand why they could not just head straight to the infirmary but need to talk to the obnoxious God and ceteur who cared way too much about Nico's 'feelings'.

Joke's on him. Nico didn't have feelings.

"Hello, Mr D! Chiron!" Will greeted in an upbeat manner. "When is our next head councillor meeting?"

"Tomorrow." Chiron told him, still concentrating on his game. "There's still a lot of people to be cared for in the infirmary, head doctor."

He said head doctor as if it was an insult, like Will couldn't do his job. He pursed his lips but otherwise you wouldn't have noticed that he was annoyed.

"I know," Will said, "but I couldn't let Nico out of my sight. He's-"

"Very healthy." Mr D remarked, putting down his game and looking over Nico for barely a second. "I think there's more... important people to check over."

Nico glared at Mr D. Was he not important enough? Well, he wasn't exactly wrong, but he didn't know that the camp leaders felt the same. Nico felt like curling into a ball, but the warmth of Will's hand kept him alright.

"With all due respect, Mr D," Will tugged Nico's hand to signal that he was planning to leave, "you're wrong."

Before they could say anything, Nico and Will hurried off to the infirmary. Nico noticed how Will never let go of his hand once since dragging him along Camp Half-Blood. He wasn't sure whether it was so Nico wouldn't scamper off or that he needed support.

They reached the infirmary, which was a purely white room with a reception and long hallways that seemed to stretch indefinately. There were crowds of people, doctors rushing around, others at the reception, begging to see how their friends were doing. Nico could feel death everywhere and it was so overwhelming he felt like crying and mourning over the deaths of the campers he didn't even know.

"Let's take you to your room." Will murmured, rushing Nico to his room. Nico felt like a puppet, not allowed to do anything he wanted to, being controlled by the son of Apollo. And, gods, he hated it.

Will walked him over the hallway, with so many doors Nico couldn't count. Some were open, with the patients being recorded of their illness with their doctors, and some were closed. The closed ones were the doors that Nico could feel death in the most.

Will and Nico reached 67B. Will fished out for a key in his pocket and unlocked the door. Stepping inside, Nico looked over where he would be for 3 days.

Like the infirmary, it was white, with a crispy white bed and desk with a lamp and button on top. Opposite the bed was a TV and a wall-lengh mirror was on the wall next to the bed. Next to that mirror was a window.

Too small for Nico to escape through.

"Okay, get in, settle down, there's TV and you can put any program you want." Will hurried him, looking stressed. "I'll bring your clothes and toiletries from your cabin but bell me if you need anything. Because I'm your doctor."

"What a shame." Nico grumbled, sitting on his bed.

"You love me." Will grinned. Nico only looked at him blankly in response.

He's annoying, Nico thought. Handsome, yes, but annoying.

"Whatever." Nico only responded with, taking off his shoes in the corner.

Will cursed, looking at his watch.

"I'll need to go soon. Chiron and Mr D are probably going to kill me for not tending to another camper. Nevermind. I'm dead for talking back to them anyway."

Nico quickly flashed back to the balcony, where Will stood up and put himself on the line just to help some son of Hades. The thought of that made him smile, but he quickly shut that down.

"Thanks for that." Nico muttered, the sentence feeling foreign to him.

"For what?" Will asked.

"For getting in trouble for me. I'm not worth it, really."

I'm not worth any of this, he thought.

Will stopped rushing and looked at Nico, his features softening.

"Nico, you saved all of us. And it wasn't the first time." Will rushed out, as if he knew that if he didn't say it then, he'd never say it. "You are so strong and you've been through so much. I marvel you for that. You deserve everything good that comes to you, and more."

Well, shit.

Nico didn't know how to respond to that, except in his way; by flustering and denying that whatever he said wasn't true.

Before Nico could think of what to say, a knock on the door spoilt the moment.

"Mister Solace!" A voice called Will from the other side of the door. "You have to sign in and review Lily Chu."

Will looked at Nico with a 'I'm-fed-up' look and put his hand on the handle to open the door. He faced back to him and smiled softly.

"Bye, Neeks."

He opened the door and a doctor with a white coat and crossed her arms. The door shut behind me.

He lied down on the bed, not understanding how he felt.

You deserve everything good that comes to you, and more.

Despite his restraints, he smiled to himself as he drifted off.

Uploading every time I upload my other book. I forgot what happened at the end of Blood Of Olympus and if they ever described how the infirmary works and stuff so if they describe that and mines different oh bloody well :D