Chapter Text
FEW DAYS HAD PASSED SINCE THE GREAT BATTLE, and everything seemed to have returned to normal at Camp Half-Blood—or rather, normal for a demigod.
The two rival camps, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, had sealed a pact of mutual alliance, swearing not to kill each other, or at least to try not to for the next two centuries. In both camps, there was a new air of peace, free from tension and suspicion, and they began a new chapter in their history: Greeks and Romans united for the first time in hundreds of years. It was what could be defined as a perfect ending, but not for everyone. Not for Nico. At the end of the war, the boy had chosen to open his heart, revealing his feelings to the handsome protagonist of this incredible story, and the result? The half-fish, half-human boy hadn't understood a thing, or at least Nico had seemed that way. He had told Percy that, yes, he had a crush on him for quite some time, but it was just an insignificant crush, and ultimately Percy wasn't really his type.
Nico's type was definitely someone else, but he still wanted to close that self-contained chapter of his life: Percy would never be able to reciprocate his feelings, and while he would remain an excellent friend, a reliable shoulder to lean on, he would never be more than that. And now that he had lifted that heavy burden from his chest, Nico felt truly ready to start over. After saying goodbye to Percy and high-fiving Annabeth, he headed towards the infirmary, where he had an appointment with a son of Apollo who had offered to document all the progress that the son of darkness was making to get back on his feet. Will — that was the name of the boy — had said that if Nico played with his skeleton and shadow friends again, he would visit his father's realm for eternity. Nico didn't like the idea at all and decided to listen to Will and make things easier for him.
He entered the infirmary, settling himself on a clean bed for use. Some beds were still occupied by the various heroes and demigods who had been injured in battle, no serious wounds, no one had lost an arm or an eye, but many had broken leg bones, a couple of ribs, and so on.
The beauty of being a demigod was that wounds healed almost immediately, and this was also accelerated thanks to the food of the gods, if taken in the right doses. However, sometimes that was not enough to heal wounds that were deeper than those caused by a sword. In Nico's case, it would take him at least a whole week to fully recover from the enormous effort that had consumed practically all of his physical energy, making him like a shadow—more or less what Will had explained to him in elementary terms, patiently carving out a moment to explain what had happened.
Nico huffed, leaning forward with his back in a questionable comfortable position, crossing his arms on his knees. He wondered why he had decided to show up so early knowing full well that Will had the shift at the arena, where he was teaching the newbies how to hold a bow and nock an arrow; and even though Will claimed to be mediocre at archery, Nico thought he didn't do too bad. Maybe he wasn't exceptional like many other children of Apollo, but the target was always hit by his arrow.. Without realizing it, the son of Hades curved his lips in a delicate smile at the thought of Will focused and with his face split by an arrow ready to be fired. "I didn't know that even children of Hades could smile" a rather sarcastic voice commented to his left. Nico straightened his back, staring at the boy who had his back to him. "You'd be surprised how many things you don't know about me" he replied to the joke, watching Will as he searched for a particular magical medicine made specifically for the boy. "I hope to learn them soon, then" the boy spoke seriously, without any hint of sarcasm or anything else, as he looked at Nico in the corner of his eye and Nico found himself with nothing else to say at that statement. "Take this, ten drops when you wake up and ten before you go to bed" Will said, handing him a small dark bottle. "What is it?" Nico asked, turning it over in his hand. "An herbal infusion, diluted with a bit of nectar. Take it for a week and don't skip a day" Will recommended. "Okay" promised Nico, without avoiding sighing: he wasn't a big fan of medicine, especially bitter ones. At that grimace, Will couldn't help but smile. "For anything, you know where to find me" added the son of Apollo, accompanying Nico to the door, only turning his gaze away from that pale boy after he was really too far away.