TW- mentions of Tartarus, death of a sibling
Word count: 2117
"Hey, Percy!" the young camper yelled. She sprinted up to the son of Poseidon, ignoring the fact that he was hacking into a practice dummy with his Celestial Bronze sword. The poor dummy looked about ready to give up the ghost!
Percy Jackson turned to the girl, wiping the sweat from his face.
She didn't know if it was simply her imagination, but his eyes looked sadder today, as though something was weighing heavily on his mind.
"Yeah, what's up, Skye?" He panted.
"Oh, ya know! Nothin' much," she said. The daughter of Demeter squinted up at him, silently cursing her uncle for making the sun so darn bright, and Percy for being so freaking tall!
"Is there something I can do for you?" Percy asked, capping Riptide.
Skye watched in awe for a few moments before snapping back into reality, "Yes, actually, there is." The 13-year old bit her lip, embarrassed. "Uh, you haven't seen a certain son of Hades lurking anywhere nearby, have you?"
Nico Di Angelo had been Skye Walters' friend since he and his sister had first gotten to Camp Half-Blood. The night he'd disappeared had set off a flame of worry in the then-10-year-old girl. It had only been exacerbated when he'd disappeared again, this time to Tartarus, for heaven's sake!
Both times, she'd cut herself off from the other campers. She hardly ever ate and when she did, she just threw it back up. The nerves never truly left, making her stomach churn and her limbs shaky.
When Nico had, at last, come back home, he was different. He suffered regularly from nightmares, flashbacks, and panic attacks. Skye knew the truth: it would be a long time, if ever, that Nico would come back from Tartarus.
Although Skye had a reputation for being bubbly and sweet, she had very few people who she could actually call friends. Most of the campers picked on her or just tried to avoid her. Skye didn't know why, but she didn't like it.
The only people she could actually call friends were the Seven, Nico, and her half technically cousin, Will Solace. The Stoll brothers always pranked her, but she knew they loved her. She would admit though, Reyna was growing on her.
And now, she couldn't find Nico anywhere! She'd checked all over the camp but to no avail; Nico seemed to have vanished!
Percy's demeanor changed almost instantly. He shifted from foot to foot and asked, "Where have you already checked?" He seemed genuinely worried about the younger boy.
"Well," Skye explained, "I've checked his cabin, the beach, Strawberry fields, even the fringes of the woods!" She rubbed her face worriedly, "Percy, I've checked every possible place he could have run to!"
Percy's eyes became stormy, his brows furrowing. He quickly slipped Riptide into his pocket and took Skye's hand. Without another word, he began to lead her up to the Big House.
"Uh, Perce?" Skye said, "Why are we going to the Big House?"
"I just need to ask Chiron if I can take you out for a bit. I'm pretty sure he'll want to know where we're going." He paused, then asked, "Today is the 19th right?"
Utterly baffled, Skye responded, "Yes? Why does that matter?"
Percy was quiet for a ways before whispering, "Because three years ago today, I lost a friend... Nico's sister."
No more needed to be said.
••••••
Skye knew what had happened to Bianca. She knew that the daughter of Hades had died on a quest with Percy and that Percy held himself responsible. She didn't know much more than that. She never liked seeing any of her friends upset, especially Nico; he was already so sad all the time!
Besides, Skye knew that her friend's lives were their own and that they'd tell her what they were comfortable with sharing. That was good enough for her.
Percy had told her where they were going: a small, out-of-the-way cemetery in Manhattan. He'd told her a few of the details regarding Bianca's death: how they'd had a closed casket funeral because they never found the body. How Nico hadn't been there when they'd had the service. How she had died retrieving a figurine for her little brother.
Most of the story wasn't new to her; she's been friends with Nico for a long time and he'd told her a lot about his childhood. He always kept the parts about his big sister short. Skye could understand that much. It was painful to relive such memories for anyone, and she knew the relationship that Nico and Bianca had shared would take twice as long to heal. She never liked to push him to talk. There was no point! Anytime a subject came up that Nico wasn't comfortable with, he'd shut down.
As they drove, Percy talked. He instructed Skye to let Nico start talking. He knew as well as she did help how easily the son of Hades would shut down, and they mutually agreed that they should keep that from happening if at all possible.
About an hour later, Percy pulled the car into a small and solemn parking lot. Snow covered the paths between the graves and made the trees hunch over. It was a rather morbidly beautiful scene.
Percy threw the car into park and looked up at the sky. "Ready?" He asked.
Skye peered out the window at the softly falling snow, gazing at the headstones all around. She nodded, took a deep breath, and opened the car door. She took one last look back at Percy before climbing out and shutting it behind her.
She looked around the small graveyard, wondering where the eldest Di Angelo was buried. Then, she saw him. His black aviators jacket and messy jet black hair were outlined against the picturesque winter scene.
Skye's best friend was hunched over a particular gravestone, ghostly pale fingers outstretched to trace over the carved words. She could hear him talking, whispering to the memorial of his big sister.
Bianca Di Angelo had opted to be reborn. This gave her the opportunity to qualify for the Isles of the Blessed, which Skye thought was awesome. What she didn't think was awesome was what it had done to Nico. Bianca being reborn meant that he had to give her up completely, to move on with his life and to let her go forever.
Skye knew exactly how hard that had been for her friend. She had been with him for it all. She'd seen the walls the son of Hades put up come tumbling down. She'd somehow gained his trust enough that he let her see him cry. She would never betray that kind of trust.
Skye began walking towards her friend. As she got closer, his murmured words began to grow louder. She caught snippets of his sentences: "Miss you-", "Finally taller than you-" and finally, "Skye is nice. You would have liked her."
Skye smiled at that last one. Nico was definitely her best friend.
The tiny 13 year old walked off the main path and followed Nico's footprints, trying to keep as much snow as she could out of her boots. She had to hop from print to print because his stride was so much bigger than hers.
He was only about a year older than the daughter of Demeter, but it seemed like everyone at Camp Half-Blood was taller than her. She was fun-sized and forever would be!
Nico heard her jumping along his path and turned to face her. "What are you doing here?" He muttered, quickly looking down at his feet.
"I was worried 'bout you." She replied, "No one knew where you were... I was lonely!" She had her hands clasped in front of her innocently, her light blue winter gloves standing out against the hot pink of her hand-me-down coat.
He smiled softly and looked down at his hands. "You know, I think you might be the only one who actually likes having me around, Skye."
She nodded, grinning, "Yup! I'm the only Demigod crazy enough to like you." She plopped down in the snow beside him and sighed.
Nico and Skye both shared a little laugh before they leaned back on the headstone. Skye turned serious. "Nico?" She asked.
He looked at her.
"Are-" she paused, "Are you okay?"
He took a deep breath before letting it out through his mouth. "No. No, Skye, I'm not okay. I honestly don't think I ever will be." He shook his head, "There'll be good days, and they'll be bad days. I just have to take them as they come, I guess."
"No." Skye said.
He turned his head to face her, looking confused, "What?"
"You said you'll have to take 'em as they come. You forgot me! I'm never leaving your side, Neeks. You're my best friend in the whole world! I honestly can't remember my life without you in it." She turned her body to face him. "You've already trusted me. You've already let me in! I guess, that's all I can ever really ask of you. Just as long as we're still friends; as long as we have each other, we'll take each day on, side by side."
She scooted closer to the son of Hades and laid her head on his shoulder. She felt him tense beneath her touch, but he took a deep breath and relaxed. He rested his head on the top of hers and wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
"You are the best friend any boy could ever ask for, Skye. You know that?" She felt him smile, and it made her smile that she'd made him smile.
Skye scooted a bit closer to Nico and wrapped one arm around his waist, pulling him a bit closer. They both sat there for a while in comfortable silence, basking in the others presence, just watching the gently falling snow. With their arms around each other, the two young teens felt like, despite every cruddy thing the Fates chucked at them, they would be okay.
••••••
They must have fallen asleep like that for a while, because the next thing they knew, Percy was shaking them awake. "Skye! Nico! Come on, you two! I promised Chiron we'd be back before dinner. I heard they were serving blue raspberry smoothies later! If I miss that, I swear I will never forgive you." He shook them both again, "Come on, sleepy heads! Time to go get fooood!"
Nico and Skye slowly woke up, both cold and shivering. Snow dusted both of them and the winter sun shone down on their faces.
A few minutes later, they were both on their feet and shaking the feeling back into their fingers and toes. Percy stood a few feet away, waiting patiently for them.
Nico and Skye begin walking back toward Percy, but Nico stopped and looked over his shoulder at his sister's grave. Skye looked back at him and her eyes widened. She'd had a beautiful idea!
She trudged back through the freshly fallen snow to her friend's side, gently taking his hand. She gave it a small squeeze, then walked him back to the headstone. He gazed at her curiously as she knelt down in the snow, covered her fingertips with the sleeve of her jacket, and brushed away the snow next to where they'd been sitting.
Once she'd uncovered a small square of Earth, she reached towards it. The daughter of Demeter felt a tingle in her fingertips as a flower began to form from the frozen ground. A ruby red rose sprung from the earth, quickly followed by a, "Before the Storm," a sub-species of black Iris.
Skye grasped both flowers by their stems and straightened. Nico watched her, both eyebrows raised as she performed her little magician's trick.
She gave the iris to Nico and kept the red rose. She smiled gently and placed her flower on Bianca's grave. Stepping back, she let Nico approach and set his flower next to her own.
He grinned a sly grin and said, "See, Bianca? I told you you'd like her."
Skye gave a tiny laugh, grabbed his hand and shook her head. "Come on, Ghost King," she chuckled, "let's go home."
Ugh, I was so homophobic 5 years ago. I refused to accept he was gay for so long, it was ridiculous. But hey, in my defense, when I wrote this, my mom was having me read everything I wrote to her so even I did accept him, I couldn't write about it. That's how it was for most of the openly LGBT fics in this book. Didn't really have a choice.