Only Time Will Tell (Solangelo)

8

"Nico," Piper giggles, "did you hear what we said?"

My eyes focus on the plate, "N-no."

I feel a hand on my back, Jason's hand to be exact. "It's okay, you seemed really zoned out. We were all checking on you." I send everyone at the table a weak smile, then go right back to playing with my chicken nuggets. My head perks up when I hear the familiar clomping of Chiron's hooves. Now is my chance.

"Mr. Chiron, sir?" I ask, jumping up from my table and walking over to him. He turns around to look down at me, which is quite intimidating if you ask me. "Can we talk in the Big House?"

Chiron pats me on the back, nearly knocking the wind out me. On the way to the Big House, we stop right before the huge doors for Chiron to get back into his wheelchair. I didn't want to ask, but the Big House might be big, but not big enough for a centaur to comfortably stand in.

"I have a couple of favors to ask you too, would you like to go first or me?" Chiron folds his hands on top of a desk, most likely staring into my soul. I could feel it.

"You-you can go first, sir," I stutter out. Chiron stares at me for a second as I awkwardly stand in front of him. I take the hint to sit in the chair in front of him, or at least I think I do. Either way, I sit down in the chair, waiting for his request from me.

"Nico di Angelo, I know you haven't been here for long, but I trust you. I'm giving you the option to replace one of your camp activities with teaching sword fighting technique to younger campers. I think you would be excellent at helping them."

It feels like my eyes are bugging out of my head. "You trust me to teach kids sword fighting?"

Chiron nods his head. "Sure, I've seen you fight." A deep breath escapes his lips, "I know you've been through a lot, Nico, and I want to help you as much as I can. If you need to talk about anything, you can come to me. If you ever need to come in to talk with me, we can plan a time to talk. I want you to be as comfortable as everyone else is here at Camp Half-Blood."

"I'd like that," I whisper, blinking the tears out of my eyes. It didn't even feel like I was crying, but hearing those words come out of Chiron's mouth made me happy.

The centaur clears his throat. "Anyways, what did you need to talk to me about?"

"My cabin, I would like to redecorate my cabin," I tell Chiron. "I really do appreciate whoever originally did it, but there are some things I would like change in the Hades cabin."

Chiron doesn't say anything. His face remains calm as he pulls a binder out of his desk drawer and plops it on the desk between us. "Take this binder. You will find many things in here, but all you have to do is choose what you want and the Hephaestus cabin and Annabeth will take care of the rest."

"Oh, thank you so much, sir," I stand up from the chair to grab the binder, which is a lot heavier than I though it would be. My arms nearly give out after five seconds of holding the big book. This is sad, I need to work out.

"Mr. di Angelo," Chiron calls out right before I leave the room. "You won't be able to stay in your cabin while it is being renovated, do you mind staying with Grace or Jackson?"

"I-I don't mind," I nod my head one last time at Chiron before escaping the Big House and walking all the way back to my cabin. A couple people gave me strange looks, I mean, I would too if I saw a camper walking around with a painfully large binder in their hands.

When I finally make it to the cabin, I chuck the binder onto my disturbing coffin shaped bed and sit next to it. The very first things I need to look for is new bed frames. Now, I know everyone is going to assume that I want black bed frames for the Hades cabin, and they are absolutely right.

There are no bunk beds in the Hades cabin, which is understandable when the big three gods decided not to have children (what a funny joke). In this remodel, there will continue to be single beds, but instead of the coffin, it will be a nice ebony wood and they will be Queen sized. I might have to fight Chiron on it, but there is only me and Hazel in here, so we have room for Queen sized beds.

Maybe I will spice things up with gray bedsheets for the beds, because not everything needs to be black. Who am I kidding, everything is going to be black.

I don't like the shag carpet, so I'll add in a dark hardwood floor and some rugs to even the place out. Instead of dressers, there will be chests at the end of each bed. Those are much more the vibe.

Would Chiron be mad if I added a private kitchen to my cabin? I would definitely become more isolated, but I like isolation. New plan, I will start out simple and add a mini fridge and microwave. The rest of my snacks can go under my bed.

There will also be a black leather couch surrounded by book selves and a fire place. Is a fire place too much? It might be, but then I could put a picture of my father above the mantel to make him happy.

I should be an interior designer. I am so good at this.

---

I can do this. The dinner plate is in my hands and all I have to do is walk over to the Apollo table and sit next to Will. That's not so hard. I have a doctor's note.

My plate gives me spaghetti and meatballs as I sit down by Will. I can literally feel my leg touching his leg, but I can't let my nerves get to the best of me. "Hello, Will," I whisper to the boy next to me.

Will turns around with a bright smile on his face. "Nico, you made it!" One of his hands appears out of nowhere, ruffling my hair to make it very messy. Not to be confused with my hair already being a curly mess, Will made it a tangled curly mess.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it," I chant, throwing my hands at his hands. Our hand throwing turns into a playful fight of trying to ruffle each other's hair. One of the other Apollo campers awkwardly coughs at the table, which makes everything a lot more awkward. Will and I becomes a giggling mess as we stare at our plates of food. I try to cover it up with eating a forkful of spaghetti, but it ends with me almost choking on the food.

"Alright, come on, di Angelo," Will coos, standing me up from the table as I keep coughing. He hands me my plate, then takes his free hand to guide me the Hades table. "This is why we agree to sit at your table. It is empty and my siblings are annoying."

"I wanted to surprise you," I cough out. His hand rubs my back a little more when I finally have a chance to drink some water. It feels nice to breath again. "Thanks, by the way."

"Don't mention it," Will beams. "Now, I have been in the infirmary all day, what have you been doing?"

I take a deep breath. When I finally confirm with myself that I won't cough anymore, I smile brightly at him. "Chiron is letting me redesign the Hades cabin. Don't worry, everything will still be black, but the coffin beds have to go."

Will points his own fork at me. "I agree. Those are very ugly."

"Tell me about it," I grumble. "There are tons of other things I want to do, but I can't tell if Chiron will let me. I could easily keep it a secret from him, so we will see."

"That's so exciting, Death Boy! Where are you going to stay while your cabin is going to be redecorated?"

I could see some sort of joy masked on his face. Is he hoping for me to stay with him? I mean, I wouldn't mind it, but their cabin is so bright. It literally hurts my eyes. Staring at Will's bright aura is hard enough.

"With Jason or Percy," I say disappointedly.

"I am so sorry for you."