The Plea of Apollo || COMPLETED

NICO II

For some reason or another, Will had allowed Nico to sleep straight through lunch.

"You were sleeping so peacefully I thought it would be to your advantage to continue as you were. It's not like you woke up before now anyway," the healer explained as he led his patient to the Hades table where his friends were already waiting.

"Whatever." He said before nodding to his friends and accepting a fist bump from Jason. Staring at his plate forlornly, he wondered if he could just call Jules-Albert to get him a Happy Meal when suddenly a plate stacked high with various meats and vegetables was shoved in front of him. Will then took his empty plate, claiming it as his own.

"You need to eat this much food so you can get your energy back after all of the Underworld-y stuff and sleeping you've been doing. For lunch tomorrow you can have what you want, but for tonight try to eat most of that. Doctor's orders," he added with a hint of playfulness in his voice.

Nico couldn't bring himself to yell at the annoying brat. After sleeping for eight hours straight, with no nightmares even, he didn't feel like letting himself be worked up. Instead he nodded, ignoring the looks of surprise on his friends' faces as he sacrificed a piece of chicken to his father and began eating without a word.

After everyone else had burned some of their food to their parents and begun eating, Jason turned to Nico. "How do you feel about playing capture the flag tomorrow? I already talked Will into letting you join as long as he stays with you the whole time."

The son of Hades almost choked on his food. "I don't need a babysitter!"

"Hey," Will placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, and to his surprise it wasn't immediately shrugged off. "You know as well as I do that you're in no condition to use your Underworld-y magic, which is cheating during capture the flag anyway, so I am just going to stick with you in case we get attacked. We shouldn't since we're going to be stealthy and look for the flag, but you never know."

Nico scoffed, shrugging Will's hand off his shoulder. "It's not like I can't take on half a dozen enemies on my own while you get chased off as a decoy," he said with a knowing grin.

"One time! I distract the Romans by letting them chase me and you go ninja on them one time and suddenly that's as far as my skills amount to."

"I suppose you could just whistle, or worse: sing. Everyone in camp will be incapacitated if you did that."

Will pouted, pretending to look hurt. "I have a beautiful singing voice thank you very much! My ultrasonic whistle is supposed to sound horrible, so you can't judge my singing skills on that."

Nico shrugged indifferently, although a smile made its way onto his lips as he kept eating.

"So," Jason said awkwardly, "you're in though, right?"

"Of course I'll grace you with my presence, Grace."

"Ha ha, very funny, di Angelo. What would I do without your original sense of humor?"

"You'd have to settle for Percy's excuses for jokes, that's what."

"Hey!" The son of the Sea God shouted indignantly. "I am hilarious thank you very much!"

Jason and Piper shook their heads. "Not as funny as—"

"Leo!" Nico found himself shouting. All of a sudden something in the world of spirits shifted. It felt like someone who should've been dead was suddenly very much alive, and there was only one person capable of doing such a thing.

He stood quickly, forgetting about his food and looking towards the horizon.

"Uh, yeah," Jason said slowly from where he remained seated at the table. "That's who I was going to say. Why are you looking at the sky?"

"Your friend's life force has suddenly returned," he answered without taking his eyes off of the skyline. He felt something approaching. "He's close. I can feel him."

Everyone at the table got up, gasping in shock as the outline of a very familiar metal dragon came into sight and became closer by the minute. No one said anything even as they made out their friend's crispy but alive body, another one sitting behind his. It was only a matter of minutes before people all over the camp flocked to the dining pavilion where Festus the dragon landed with a resounding clank.

"Hello everybody!" A large grin split Leo's face as he hopped off of the dragon, helping the girl who sat behind him down. "Leo the great, the boy on fire, conqueror of the dirt hag, and all around the most amazing guy to ever has returned from the grave!"

"He was practicing," the girl beside him said with an exasperated smile.

Percy couldn't believe his eyes. "Calypso? You got off the island!"

The girl smiled sweetly, grabbing Leo's hand as they made their way to stand in front of their friends. "Actually, I got a lift from this boy and his dragon. He found Ogygia twice and broke the curse binding me there."

He turned to Leo, a sad but grateful look in his eyes. "Thank you for keeping the promise I couldn't keep."

"No problem man," he waved it off. "So, how are things— Oof!"

Before he could say another word, the burnt mess of a demigod was tackled to the ground by Piper and Jason. Many of the campers watching the exchange couldn't help but laugh as he was squeezed to death, Leo begging them to give him some space before his hotness gave them third degree burns. This didn't stop the two demigods from yelling at him and telling him never to pull another stunt like he had again, which he agreed to, or from Piper kissing him on the cheek.

Leo let out a sigh of relief as he wrapped an arm around Calypso. "It's good to be back. I have so much stuff to tell you guys! After I exploded..." He trailed off when Chiron suddenly appeared beside him, the centaur gazing at him curiously.

"It would be like you, Leo Valdez, to miss your own funeral and force us to make you another shroud."

Nico's lips twisted upward against his will when the child went into a spiel about what he wanted his new shroud to look like. Something about flames and dragons and the like. He also wanted to know when the party celebrating his return would be arranged, to which Chiron said could be the night after capture the flag, and if Calypso could stay in the big house. Chiron agreed, saying she could have Rachel's old room in the attic.

"You know, you should smile more often."

Nico whipped his head around to meet the ever-smiling face of Will. The boy's blue-eyed gaze bore into Nico's own, causing his pulse to speed up slightly.

"It looks nice on you."

Turning his eyes to the ground, a blush threatening to rise to his face, he made a noise of disagreement. "Shut up, Solace."

"Awe, Death Boy, don't you know it takes more muscles to frown than smile?"

"Don't you know I could use less muscles than that to slap that stupid grin off your face?"

Will's grin merely widened. "My face is too beautiful to be slapped. You wouldn't want to mess it up, would you?"

This time Nico couldn't stop his cheeks from pinkening. The son of Apollo saw this and let out a small laugh, a sound that caused Nico even more inner turmoil.

What is this idiot doing to me?