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After hours of doing repair work on the Argo 2 under the blazing hot mediterranean sun, Jason was looking forward to lunch break. Especially knowing, that Pipers Cornucopia would spill some ice cold coke too. That’s what he needed right now. They all came on deck and took their places in the shadow around the picnic blanket. Piper opened the cornucopia and food and drinks spilled out. Everyone grabbed what looked good to them. Jason leaned back on his elbows, body outstretched and opened his coke. This first sip always tasted like heaven. Contentedly he bit into his Reuben sandwich. Munching happily he let his eyes wander over their little group. Leo had dug into his food, that looked like it had been tacos, without bothering to use any clutery. Now he was licking his fingers clean. Disgusted, Jason turned his gaze on Hazel, who sat next to Leo. Hazel was eating something that looked like a grilled cheese sandwich and was sipping on some Italian lemonade. She gave Leo a stern look, which made him blush and reach for a napkin. Frank was munching on a massive burger and Piper had a Plate with cheese, olives and fresh figs in front of her. Ah, the mediterranean diet, Jason thought. Coach Headg had helped himself to some paper plates and grapes. The only one missing from their group was Nico. The son of Hades still sat on his place up in the rigging, looking out onto the sea, ignoring the rest of the group.
“Nico”, Jason shouted, “come down here and grab something to eat.”
Jason had to squint against the sunlight to see Nico shaking his head.
“Not hungry”, he shouted back. Jason glared up at him, but he doubted, that Nico could make out his expression from that far away. Nico was incredibly skinny and pale. He couldn’t afford to leave most meals out. Of course he had only survived, because he could get into a death sleep where he could survive from only one pomegranate seed a day. But they had rescued him weeks ago and he didn’t seem to consume more than a few pomegranate seeds per day, even though the ship and Pipers cornucopia provided them with everything they could possibly want.
But Nico didn’t seem to want anything.
A few days he observed how Nico purposefully avoided eating with them, but on the third day he had enough.
“Piper”, he said, just after she had closed off the cornucopia again, “do you think it can sense what each one of us would like to eat?”
Piper shrugged her shoulders, “at least I haven’t gotten anything I don’t like to eat”, she said. “And it knew, when it was your birthday”, she reminded him.
Jason nodded. “Do you think you can get it to spit out something Nico really would like to eat? Anything but pomegranates?”
Piper held his gaze for a few moments, reading his concern for Nico and his determination to help.
She nodded and scrunched up her nose in concentration. Jason marveled at how cute she was, when she did that. She opened the lid of the cornucopia and it spit out a brown McDonalds paper bag. Jason smiled. A happy meal.
“Piper, you’re brilliant”, he said full of adoration for his girlfriend. “You go on eating, this might take a while”, he said to the others. Hazel, usually the one pestering her brother to eat more, gave him a grateful look. He smiled at her encouragingly before he grabbed his sandwich and swallowed the rest of it, then he took the McDonalds bag and two bottles of coke and strolled over to the mast, where Nico sat in the rigging. He summoned a gust of wind to fly him upwards, as he had no free hand to climb. Nico looked at him almost scared, like the poor kid was so stunned by Jason’s antics, that it didn’t occur to him, that he actually could have climbed down to get away.
“What are you doing?” he yelled at Jason.
“Bringing you lunch”, stated Jason the most obviously. He landed on the ropes surrounding the lookout, bounced off them and landed on the small space, nose to nose with Nico. Well, more like nose to Adam’s apple. Both of them stepped back as far as the small space allowed. Jason leaned against the robes and held the bag out to Nico.
“Here, the cornucopia spit it out just for you”, he said softly.
There were so many emotions crossing Nico’s face so fast, that Jason couldn’t keep track. He saw surprise, anger, sadness and regret, but he saw joy as well. When Nico looked up at him, he couldn’t read his dark eyes.
“I’m not sure I can”, he said quietly, “eat all of it, I mean.”
Jason nodded in understanding. He could imagine that after weeks of eating almost nothing, being asked to eat an entire happy meal, would seem a lot.
“We could share?” he suggested. Again Nico stared at him with his unreadable dark eyes. Then for a second, a small smile appeared on Nico’s lips. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here”, he took the bag from Jason’s Hand and peered inside.
“No way!” he exclaimed and reached into the bag. He pulled out a card, that looked like it belonged to a card game. He held it, so that Jason could see it. The Illustration showed the cornucopia and underneath was written: restorative Power +5000
Jason gave him a clueless look.
“What is that?” he asked, taking the card from Nico.
Nico laughed, “you don’t know mythomagic, the card game?” he asked back. Jason shook his head.
“Well it’s a game with gods and monsters, like Greek gods and monsters. I liked to play it when I was still a child.” For a moment Nico had sounded excited, like the teenage boy he looked like, but at the end of his explanation he was back to his somber self. Jason wondered if there was anything the son of Hades could actually enjoy. Most of the time Nico radiated anger and pain so strongly, that Jason was afraid he might never feel happy. He wouldn’t say, that he knew Nico well, but he knew him well enough to be sure, that the kid did not deserve to suffer that much. Yes, Nico’s powers still made him a bit uneasy, as did his brooding personality, but for some strange reason, he trusted him. Now it was his time to have Nico’s back. Maybe the boy could handle himself with monsters and enemies, but he didn’t know how to take care of himself and how to reach out when he needed help. Jason gave Nico the Card back and the other boy quickly stuffed it in the back pocket of his black jeans. The mob of dark hair that fell into his face only did a half assed job at hiding the faint pink blush that spread over his pale face.
“Well, let’s see how this restorative magic called Food works, shall we?” Jason held out the cheeseburger on one hand, the red papercup with fries in his other hand.
“Nico”, he started to say, when the other boy still hesitated, but then Nico gingerly plucked the fries from his hand and sat cross legged down on the floor. Jason sat on the rig and unwrapped his burger.
“Thanks”, Nico said, “I love McDonalds.”
Jason by now was used to it, that almost everything Nico said was either gloomy or sarcastic and the sincereness of this statement almost made him laugh, but he managed to convert his reaction into a amused smile, which Nico even returned. He then started eating by picking up one fry after another. But Jason wouldn’t complain about that, at least he was eating something.
“Anytime di Angelo”, Jason said grinning, “that’s what friends are for.”