Nico knew they didn't know him well yet, but he still went to Piper's room that night. He needed someone to talk to, and from what he remembered, Piper would be the best for this.
After a quiet "come in", he opened the door to find her sitting on her bed, her hair wet from the shower, her brushing through it with a comb. He couldn't remember the last time he brushed his.
"...Nico? Everything okay?" she asked.
"Mind if I talk to you about something?" he asked. "I, uh, don't know who else to go to."
Piper gestured to the end of the bed before sitting back against the frame. He sat there and picked at his nails, unsure of what was so bothersome about all this. How to phrase it. Where to begin.
"I feel like a girl sometimes," he blurted.
"Huh?" Piper asked.
Nico blushed before scratching the back of his neck. "It's a...a long story."
"Tell me."
.
.
.
Piper was looking at him in a whole new light, but this one was full of trust.
"Even if your situation is, what you're experiencing isn't so uncommon," Piper started. "Everyone's different. Some people like finding a label that fits them, others don't. What do you think about you?"
"It's really common? Really?" Nico asked. Something about that didn't add up in his 1930's brain. "I'm not even weirder than I already am?"
"First of all, you were never weird. Second of all, no, this does not make you weird." Piper laid back and stretched. "You were just...different. You're older than us and you've obviously been through some shit. Then the whole travel through time thing...different, even for demigods. But you're not weird."
"Do you feel uncomfortable in your body?" she asked after a minute of silence.
"Sometimes," he admitted. "But it's mostly my name. I liked when Hazel called me Neeks. And I...I don't like when people call me man, or boys, or he."
"Then we'll call you Neeks, and we won't call you he," Piper said. "It's who you are. It's not like you're asking us to learn Italian."
She smiled. "But I do have a question, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind."
"Did you feel this way before you remembered Jacquotte?"
Nico frowned. "I...don't know. I guess, deep down. Like...like it felt weird to not have a chest... I thought it was just trying to remember her. I didn't know it was this."
"It was always you, Neeks." she kicked him lightly. "Now go on, go get some rest."
He smiled and it burned, but it was a good burn. "I'll see you tomorrow, Pipes."
"See you, Neeks."
.
.
.
"What are they?" Hazel asked, staring down at the monsters roaming around Venice.
"Katobleps," Nico answered. "Everyone sees them as stray dogs. Even mama thought they were, and that was back in the 1930s."
"Are they dangerous?" Hazel asked.
"Not if you're just a passing mortal. Just don't mess with those roots all over the ground."
Leo pulled the leather-bound manual from underneath his arm. A sticky note on the cover had the address the dwarfs in Bologna had given him.
"La Casa Nera," he read. "Calle Frezzeria."
"The Black House," Nico translated. "Calle Frezzeria is the street."
"Do you speak Italian or you just remember that?" Leo asked.
"Both," Nico answered. "The only way to do it is to walk the city. Venice is a maze."
Jason frowned at the horizon. "Maybe I should stay on board. Lots of venti in that storm last night. If they decide to attack the ship again ..."
Coach Hedge grunted. "Well, I'm out, too. If you softhearted cupcakes are going to stroll through Venice without even whacking those furry animals on the head, forget it. I don't like boring expeditions."
"It's okay, Coach." Leo grinned. "We still have to repair the foremast. Then I need your help in the engine room. I've got an idea for a new installation."
"Well ..." Piper shifted her feet. "Whoever goes should be good with animals. I, uh ... I'll admit I'm not great with cows. Neeks, who should go?"
"Neeks?" Jason whispered.
Frank shrugged at him. "I'll go."
Leo patted him on the shoulder and handed him the leather-bound book. "Awesome. If you pass a hardware store, could you get me some two-by-fours and a gallon of tar?"
"Leo," Hazel chided, "it's not a shopping trip."
"Hazel and I will go with Frank," Nico spoke up. "Three is optimal for a quest and besides, I speak Italian."
.
.
.
Walking through Venice always made him feel something. He used to think it was because it was his first home, but that wasn't the case any longer. No, his first home was a ship that exploded long ago. Venice was...Venice. Was bittersweet memories and fantasy dreams. Was where one of his mothers loved him, the only mother he remembered.
(he was loved with a motherly love there, something he'd never have again, and maybe that's why it hurt so strangely)
"Nico, can I ask you something?" Hazel asked.
"Yeah, but I can't promise I can answer it."
"Why did Piper call you Neeks?"
Nico shrugged. "Cause I like it."
"And Percy has called you Eun..."
She didn't say it with the accent he once had, but he understood her anyway.
Nico nodded. "I was known as Eun during my second life."
"So, what do you want me to call you?" she asked. "Eun? Nico? Neeks? Or do you not care?"
(in a city he was once born in, he made himself anew)
"Neeks," he decided. "I like Neeks. It's not one or the other of my lives. I..." He smiled. "I liked Neeks."
Hazel smiled at him. "Okay, Neeks. Show us the way."
Nico gestured away from the canal. "Let's get out of this neighborhood. It's full of lemures."
"Lemurs?" Frank asked nervously. "I'm guessing you don't mean the furry little guys from Madagascar?"
Nico still didn't know what Madagascar was but decided it was better not to ask.
"Angry ghosts," Nico said. "Lemures go back to Roman times. They hang around a lot of Italian cities, but I've never felt so many in one place. My mom told me ..." He hesitated. "She used to tell me stories about the ghosts of Venice."
"Neeks, your mom was Italian?" Frank guessed. "She was from Venice?"
Nico nodded reluctantly. "She met Hades here, back in the 1930s. As World War Two got closer, she fled to the U.S. with my sister and me. I mean ... Bianca, my other sister. I don't remember much about Italy, but I can still speak the language."
"Must've been hard on your mom," Frank said. "I guess we'll do anything for someone we love."
Eun remembered dying for Alasdair. "Yeah," he said bitterly. "I guess we will."
The silence must have been too awkward because Frank spoke up again.
"So, the lemures ..." he swallowed. "How do we avoid them?"
"I'm already on it," Nico said. "I'm sending out the message that they should stay away and ignore us. Hopefully, that's enough. Otherwise ... things could get messy."
Hazel pursed her lips. "Let's get going."