I stumbled, landing clumsily back on the deck of the Argo II. The short Latino boy caught me, and let out an oof as I fell into him. I pushed him away quickly, feeling embarrassed. I brushed myself off and stood tall, looking at the small audience I had. My eyes darted from face to face.
"Um... hello?" was the only thing I had to offer. The black girl stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. I threw my arms up as a defence mechanism and flipped her onto the floor.
"Hazel!" the Asian looking boy called, running to her and helping her up. Nico nudged me reproachfully.
"Isabella." he said, "You can trust her. She's our half- sister." My eyes widened and I took a step back. The Latino boy was staring at me, as if trying to decide whether or not he admired me or hated me. I took another step back.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, I just..." I trailed off, unsure of what to say. "Sorry."
"It's alright." said the girl I'd just thrown on the floor. This time she sheepishly held her hand out and introduced herself. "I'm Hazel. I'm a daughter of Pluto. The Roman version of your dad." I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around all of this. I realized that her hand was still out, so I hastily shook it.
"Isabella." I said. The tall blonde boy I'd knocked out of the sky stepped forward. He was holding a tissue to his nose. It had specks of dried blood on it. "I'm Jason." he said.
"Sorry." I said, "For the whole..." I motioned at his nose, apologizing for elbowing him in the face earlier. The Latino boy joined him. "The name's Leo, inventor extraordinaire, possessor of good looks, and all round amazing person. " he said, grinning widely and running a hand through his hair. I stifled a laugh but gave him a smile.
The Asian boy stayed where he was, but cleared his throat and said "I'm Frank."
The other girl looked at the floor, as if she was anxious. "I'm Piper." She explained. "Sorry for scaring you." I looked at Nico. He motioned at me to step forward. "Um," I didn't know what to say. "It's ok. I'm sorry for throwing myself off of your flying boat."
That earned me a snort from Piper. Hesitantly, I joined in the laughter, and after gauging the situation the others started laughing as well. I was overwhelmed at the absurdity of the situation, and I went from laughing to crying in a very short period of time. Piper looked startled.
"Hey, it's OK. Are you alright?" She sounded worried, like she... cared about me. We'd only known each other five minutes. Why would she try and take on the pain of someone she barely knew? I rubbed my eyes hard, but black spots were beginning to appear in my line of vision. There was a roaring in my ears, and I felt hot and flushed.
"Sorry. I think I need to go." My breathing quickened, and I felt lightheaded and shaky, my heart pounding. Nico grabbed my shoulders and started guiding me towards the stairs. As I took a shuddering breath, the shadows suddenly swam before me, and I found myself falling into them, losing my grip on Nico in the process.
I reappeared in what looked like a bedroom. My breathing kept speeding up, to the point that I was fully hyperventilating. My eyesight was going black at the edges and I felt dizzy. I could hear confused voices coming from above me. I must have still been on the ship. I went to grab the edge of the desk that was neatly placed in the corner of the room, knocking off several items as I did so. I reached a hand up to my face, and felt hot tears on my cheek. I didn't know what was happening to me. The voices above me stopped, and I heard footsteps running towards where I was. The door to the room flew open, and I turned to see Jason with a sword drawn. I pushed myself up against the desk, but his eyes were still narrowed, like he... like he couldn't see me. The others quickly followed behind him, and I received a mixture of wide and narrowed eyes.
"What the...?" Leo breathed. The only person who reacted was Nico.
"She's having a panic attack!" he said, sounding worried. "Out the way, let me help her!" he yelled. Percy stood in front of him.
"But- but what in Hades is that?" he said, sounding awestruck. "That... that cloud?" Nico shrugged, and Leo began to make his way towards me, arms outstretched. I could see the darkness swirling around me now, but I didn't know how to stop it. My breathing was still coming fast as the darkness formed a tendril and struck Leo across the face, throwing him across the room and leaving a small gash on his cheek.
"So- sor- sorry." I manged to get the word out through heaving breaths. Jason and the others took a step back, but Nico stepped forward. He looked completely calm now. He began to walk towards me slowly. The darkness went to strike him, but he held up a hand and it stopped in its tracks. He raised his other hand, and began to compact the darkness into a tight cylinder around me. He got closer, and closer, until he broke through the wall. He wrapped me in a hug and started whispering comforting things in our native language into my ear. He stroked my hair, the way mum used to stroke our hair when we were little.
"Shh," he whispered, "Va bene. Sai al sicuro." (A/N- Means "It's ok. You're safe." In Italian). He whispered it over and over, like a mantra, until my breathing slowed and I started sobbing quietly into his shoulder. We stayed that way for about five minutes, the others awkwardly watching, not knowing what to do. I felt embarrassed that I'd had such a huge breakdown in front of them. I gently pulled myself away from Nico, wiped the tears off my cheeks, and stood up. I'd somehow ended up on the floor in the midst of my... what had Nico called it? Panic attack? I looked around, and saw the mess I'd made. Papers were strewn all over the floor and everything had been knocked off the desk. It looked like a hurricane had ripped through the room.
"Whose room is this?" I asked.
"Er, mine." Annabeth said.
"Oh gods. Sorry." I said. She smiled at me.
"Stop apologizing. It feels like that's all you've done since you got here! It's fine, honestly." She slung an arm around my shoulder, and I didn't flinch away. "See?" she said. "You're getting better already. You didn't judo flip me!" I groaned and put my head in my hands. The others laughed, and I slowly joined in. Somehow, I already felt like I belonged with these almost strangers. They felt like my people. And they didn't seem to want to kill me, which was always a plus. I finally felt, for the first time in over seventy years, that I kind of belonged somewhere.
A/N~ Thank you so much to a311243549 (from Fanfiction.net) for being an amazing beta reader! I'm in my summer holidays now, so I should be updating more often, and it's so helpful to have someone who will check over and correct any mistakes I've made and offer suggestions to improve the story. Sorry for the long old wait between the last chapter and this chapter, but hey, what can you do? See you later, you wonderful people!
Alaya