You see, when Nico was three years old, something started to grow within him. Something rotten and sick, something morbid and twisted. Something that everyone ignored. The only person who ever made a comment on it was Bianca.
Nico didn't know where it came from, the urge to rip out the wings of insects, the urge to torture them instead of kill them, because what was worse than being born with wings and suddenly having them ripped out?
She had seen him capture a butterfly, had followed his movements as he plucked the wings from the body like petals from a tulip. She had stood up, marched over and pulled him to his feet.
"Uccidilo. Kill it.", she said, the tone in her voice making the small boy shiver. He had wrung in her grip, but it was hard as stone.
"Perché? Why?", he had whined and tears sprung to his eyes at the force with which his sister's nails dug through his shirt.
"Perché hai appena distrutto la sua vita, Nico, e ora mostri pietà. Giocare con la loro vita non è qualcosa da fare con un sorriso. Because you just destroyed its life, Nico, and now you show mercy. Playing with their life isn't something to do with a grin.", she had snapped and because Nico didn't do anything, Bianca stomped onto the writhing body on the ground and marched off, face sour. The splotch on the ground had haunted both of their dreams for months to come.
You see, when Bianca was three years old something started to grow within her. Something rotten and sick, something morbid and twisted. Something that everyone ignored. Until she started school and everyone ran away from her with tears in their eyes when she showed the glittering wings of a dragonfly and the still squirming body to her friends at school.
Bianca had learned to stop the urge to destroy lives, the urge to hurt so badly that there would be begging rather than just kill. And she didn't want for Nico to hurt like she did.
But where Bianca's rottenness disappeared, Nico's grew like his bones. He hid it, behind his back in clasped hands, and the pockets of his trousers, but it grew steadily.
He managed to hide it for so long, that it became natural for him to squeeze the blood out of his fingers when the urge to destroy became too big. Fingertips were scarred to a point where it didn't seem like he had a fingerprint.
Nico hid his nature his entire life, and when he didn't have to do it anymore, he didn't even notice. His scars faded slowly, went from the clawing red to a pale rose shade until they were a gentle white.
"Why do you have those scars on your fingers, Neeks?", Lil asked him once, and Nico looked down to find the angry gashes that had once decorated his skin gone.
He had cried, then, and he had told his companion everything. Liliom had only gathered him in his arms and had told him it didn't matter, that he only wanted Nico to stop trying to cut the bad out of himself. That he'd love him without or without that something.
When March rolled around, and Nico came to visit, he noticed the change in the atmosphere.
"What's going on?", he asked Lil in a whisper, hand grasping for his. Liliom had only sighed and said:"Spring is about to come again, and Mama is fighting with Hades, like always."
Nico would've slapped himself. How could he have forgotten? When did the time go by so fast? Panic had begun to seep through his bones and he could feel the skeletons around him start to rattle.
"Hey, don't worry Neeks. It's only a few", Lil winced,"months. I'll be back before you know it. Now, come on and help me pack, I have no idea what kind of mythomagic cards I should bring."
They both knew it was a lie. It wasn't just a few months, it was half a year, and Liliom knew exactly which cards he wanted to bring.
Waving goodbye broke something in them.
The train was rattling and the rythm was familiar under Lil's feet, but he didn't feel the happiness he normally felt when Spring began. It felt like he was a mirror that had been broken and now shards are missing. He had never understood before how his mother felt whenever she left.
He did now.
Nico had never felt like this. After Bianca died, he was angry, and he was ready to tear the world apart. He was filled with the desire to destroy and ruin.
Now, he just felt empty, restless. Like, he was supposed to be somewhere, but he couldn't be there. Nico caught a fever four days later, and he felt like he was dying.
Demeter was so excited to see her grandson, to see his shining eyes and to talk to him about the different kinds of flowers he learnt about over the Winter.
She didn't expect to see a pale faced boy with bags under his eyes and a tremor in his hands. He looked feverish, too much like when Thanatos first brought him to his mother, but he wasn't sick.
He was waiting. It was the only thing he had been doing these past weeks. Waiting. Staring out the window. Longing.
Waiting.
Waiting.
waiting.
waiting and longing...
"Please, Mother. I can't bear to see him like this. Please-"
Liliom drowned the sobs of his mother out, stared out of the window, and dreamed about pale hands that grasped his and poppies the size of mountains.
Nico didn't get better.
"Come here, son.", Hades said, and slowly lifted Nico from his bed. The blanket was wrapped around him like armor and he shivered at the change of position.
"Lil...", he mutters, eyes empty and haunting. His father sighed.
Demeter glared. "You bring that boy in and disappear, immediately. I'm doing this for my family.", she said, voice like metal. He only nodded.
"Lil, baby, come here.", Persephone whispered, voice soft and gentle, scared and powerless.
Liliom stood up on shaky legs and stumbled over the carpet in the living room before standing in front of her.
"Nico's here, darling.", she said and pushed a limp strand of hair from his eyes. Confusion clouded them.
Those seemed to be the only words he heard clearly since they arrived.
"Neeks?", he asked, voice straining and Persephone almost cried at the sound. She only nodded, and stood to the side, letting Liliom's sight fall onto a shivering bundle of blankets, lying on his bed. He almost dropped to his knees at the sight of him. A breath left his lungs and Liliom catapulted himself onto the bed, wriggling into the covers next to Nico, sliding his hands into his and silently crying.
When Nico woke up, all he saw where dark curls and freckles and he smiled and nuzzled into the hug, eyes still heavy, shiver gone.
They blinked awake, foreheads touching and legs intertwined. They shared a smile and soft 'heys' and 'hellos'.
Two days later they played tag in the back yard, eyes glowing and laughter ricocheting. Persephone was smiling and Demeter was glad her daughter was happy.
So Nico spent the summers with them. Really, he spent almost every second with Lil.