Solangelo Oneshots and AU's

Take Me Down Memory Lane

AN: Hello.

The sun begins to dip below the horizon as Nico paces the floors of a too empty apartment. The air is silent asides from his own voice and the whirr of the washing machine from the kitchen. Though his bare feet thud against the floor too, but the echos only remind him of the isolation reverberating off the walls in a hollow room.

Nico frowns down at his phone, eyes skirting along the messages he's sent that never receives a single reply. With a stupid, stubborn and systematic notion he can't seem to shake off, his finger inconsistently swipes down, refreshing the app over and over and over but still it provides no avail -- not that Nico had expected anything else, but he could only be a little hopeful.

His thumb hovers over the call button, peering longingly at the avatar picture aside it. He can't help but smile as Will's photo smiles back up at him. Still, it's a pitiful replacement of the real thing and Nico doubts that even the most advanced lens could mimic the actual warmth that his boyfriends grin brought in person. However, in the solitude, Nico appreciates it over nothing.

It's with a sigh that he shakes his head and promptly scrolls through his other contacts instead, not eager to leave yet another voicemail after a few pathetic beeps.

He taps a name and they've already picked up before Nico knows it.

"Hey Nico, how ya doing?" Piper McLean greets, instant and kind. It makes him feel better that at least he isn't being completely ignored.

"Fine I guess," he lies, "How's camp?"

Nico can't see Piper, but he's sure she's rolling her eyes and knowingly planting her hand on her hip. "Camp's alright, but cut the bullshit. 'Fine I guess,' puh-lease. You should know by now to not lie to a charmspeaker."

Sighing, he concedes, "I am fine, but I don't know, it's just kinda lonely around here, and Will's been ignoring all my texts."

"Wow, I was a rebound? Gee thanks, sorry if I'm not as good as Will Solace."

Nico snorts at that. "Right now you're just an alternative since my boyfriend has apparently forgotten how to use his phone," he humours with a tone light, but the tone diffuses the bitter truth into the air and lays it heavy on his shoulders, his feet still subconsciously taking him from room to room.

Piper seems to pick up on it too, "I know you miss him Nico, he misses you too, trust me. He's just super busy around here."

"Yeah, I get it." He's too busy to deal with me.

"I'm serious, Nico," she says as though she could read his thoughts, "You and I both know that I know what it's like the most, but at least you know he's coming back to you soon."

"Yeah I know," the son of Hades sighs, "I just--"

"You miss him," Piper's static voice finishes for him and Nico just leans against the door frame and longingly eyes the empty bed.

It's strange. If one were to go back all those years and tell little Nico that he'd hate living in isolation, he'd probably scowl and claim that children of Hades will never need other people to rely on. Give it a decade and the Italian could almost laugh at the thought. His childhood had been particularly strenuous, and after Bianca he didn't think anyone could replace the hollow hole left in his soul as hers left the land of the living. He remembers hiding away into shadows and materialising in others only to remain within the darkness, full well believing that there was no other place for him in the world besides from the tenebrosity in which he loomed in. Even months after the war, the idea of belonging baffled him; couldn't get his mind across the fact that people actually wanted him there rather than playing the role of a burden.