Archive of Our Own ^beta

1. 

The moon is bright the night after Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus. Too bright, in Leo’s opinion. There’s no reason for anything to be this bright when everyone he loves is hurting. But he has faith. If anyone can make it through hell and survive, it’s those two. Annabeth, whom he admires and respects, a fierce warrior and an even fiercer friend, and Percy, possibly the most powerful demigod Leo has ever met, someone who, quite literally, will go through hell for the people he loves. If anyone can do it, it’s them. 

A creaking step pulls Leo out of his thoughts. Reminds him of another thing that happened today. Of the Argo II’s newest crew member. 

Nico emerges onto the deck.

Quiet, dark, and to be honest, a little creepy, Leo doesn’t know what to make of Nico di Angelo. He's just a kid– but so are the rest of them –yet the shadows under his eyes seem to be permanent fixtures of his face, and even though Leo’s only known him a day, he recognizes something in Nico, a pain set deep in his soul. That sounds like cheesy bullshit, and it is, but… it makes him seem more human, more real, as opposed to a fictional hero in a story told around the fire at camp. 

They don’t acknowledge each other. Nico sits near the bow of the ship, leaning against the walls as if he wants them to disappear, as if he wants to free fall into the ocean. Leo can understand that. So he leaves the wheel and walks towards the bow, choosing to sit with his back against a crate, leaving Nico in his periphery. 

He knows he’s been noticed, and the silence of the empty air becomes something else, something warmer.

They do not speak. 

In the daytime though, they talk. Not much, not about anything important, just Leo’s usual jokes and Nico’s grumbled replies that slowly grow in volume until they become fully comprehensible. It’s almost friendship, Leo thinks, but he doesn’t know what to make of it. 

They’re grounded the night after Jason and Nico visit Diocletian's palace. Well, grounded as in they aren’t flying, but they’re still sailing in the water, gentle waves lapping against the side of the boat. It’s more peaceful down here, Leo thinks, despite the fact that nothing about this quest has been remotely peaceful. Maybe it’s due to the proximity of the water, something that can help stop Leo’s fire if he gets possessed, or loses control. 

There’s a slight comfort in knowing that there’s something to save your friends if you ever end up hurting them. It's also quite morbid, but Leo refuses to acknowledge that, instead refocusing on the way the boat rocks a little, on the breeze in the air, and the unique stillness that involves more movement than it should, something they never get while they fly. It's solid and reassuring. 

A stair creaks, and really, Leo should fix that, but he finds that he waits for it to creak as it does, every now and again, signalling Nico’s arrival. This time, Nico’s footsteps are heavy, and he stops in the middle of the deck.

Leo turns to face him fully. Nico is shaking, and it could totally be because of the cold night air or Nico’s obvious malnourishment, but it could also be because of what happened. Except Leo isn’t quite sure what exactly happened. All he knows is that Jason told the rest of them to go easy on Nico, to not push him too hard, and Leo’s doing the best he can without treating Nico like glass, because he’s been there, and it sucks.

So instead of doing some stupid shit like baby talking a teenager or shooting hidden pitying looks the way he may or may not have seen the other Argo II passengers do, he presses a button on his handy-dandy remote control, and out pops a fire pit, conveniently placed in the middle of the deck around where Nico sits. 

Leo lights the fire and Nico only flinches a bit, which Leo chooses not to take personally, due to the supposedly taxing mission Nico had just returned from in which both parties returned completely unscathed after having acquired the item they had sought to retrieve. But Leo knows sometimes the hurt comes from inside, and if Nico’s red rimmed eyes and still shaking body are anything to go off of, he is in a lot of pain. 

They sit in silence for a while, but Leo can tell that Nico needs something more than that tonight. and Leo, the thoughtful and generous and amazing friend he is, decides to do something.

“Nice night, huh,” he says, and okay, yeah, maybe he sounds like a total moron, but Nico deflates a bit after he speaks, looking around as if he’s truly seeing his surroundings for the first time. 

“‘m not sure I can be objective about that.” He frowns and scrunches his nose a bit. It makes him look younger, or at least closer to his real age, and Leo can’t help but feel a pang when he thinks of the childhood none of them got to have.

“Who said anything about being objective,” Leo says instead, “It’s nice because I think it’s nice.”

Nico blinks twice. “I guess.”

“I mean, and don’t tell Jason or anything,” he leans in conspiratorially, hoping the fire casts some eerie shadows across his face, “But I like being on the water more than in the sky.” Nico exhales something like a laugh.

“I'm definitely telling him you said that.” Leo gasps dramatically, placing his hand over his heart. “But I agree. The sky… I'm not supposed to be there.”

“What, are you encroaching on another big three kid’s territory?” He raises his eyebrow, but he’s genuinely curious. He didn’t have much time to learn about the dynamic that demigods’ godly parents enforce. 

“Something like that, I guess.”

“But isn’t the water still like, not your territory.”

“Yeah, but Poseidon likes me more than Zeus, since I helped Percy out with the Achilles curse and all that.” Nico shifts a bit. “That might not be the case anymore.” The thought seemed to trouble him. 

“Well, just so you know, it wasn’t your fault.” 

“Still feels like it though. And today didn’t exactly help.”

“Rough trip?”

Nico scoffs softly. “You can say that again.” 

“Wanna talk about it?” Leo says, softening his voice enough to seem welcoming, but not enough to delve into the realm of pity. Gods know how much he hates pity.

“Just… in order to get the sceptre, I had to deal with something I wasn’t ready to accept.” He looks Leo in the eyes for the first time all night, and Leo is hit with the full force of the sorrow buried there. He takes a deep breath.

“It must've been hard.”

Nico scoffs again, but this time, it sounds lighter. “You can say that again.”

The next day they sit together at breakfast, and they chat idly. Nico tells Leo all the different rules of all the different versions of Mythomagic, and Leo tells him about all the games he learned in various foster homes and on the run. They don’t play any of them, and Leo tries not to think about it too hard, since psychoanalysing himself never ends positively, but he thinks that maybe those games represented a different part of their lives. A time where they were, not freer or unburdened, but a time when they were just troubled kids, instead of troubled demigods with the fate of the world on their shoulders.

The conversation is nice though, and Leo wonders what the two of them would have been like if they met somewhere else. Different time, different place, different life. He likes to think that they would still be friends, because that’s what they are now, Leo is sure of it. 

Him and Nico, friends. What a strange and wonderful truth.

The darkness of the night is expansive, the air cruel and menacing. The moon reminds Leo of Calypso, of the flowers in her garden and the warm caramel of her hair, and of the desperate way she had kissed him, like he was her only way out of the cage she lived in. 

Leo’s angry, and he’s hurt. He doesn’t understand how someone like her could end up in a fate so cruel and oppressive.

A strong wind whips his hair into his eyes. Leo contemplates going to his room.

The stair creaks. 

“Nice night,” Nico says, leaning on the railing next to Leo. He grunts in response. They’re actually grounded this time. Docked somewhere in fucking Europe like they always are. Chasing a fate that’s likely going to kill them. What even is the point of all this? What are they working towards? Or are they simply living in the cycle of getting attacked and trying to survive. Rinse and repeat. “I actually don’t think the night is nice. but I thought you might.” 

Leo turns to look at Nico, who’s staring at the moon. “It's a shit night.”

The corner of Nico’s mouth turns up. “Reminds me of the night I found out I was a demigod.” He faces Leo, who nods at him to continue. “My sister and I went to this military boarding school, and it was the night of the winter formal. The director or principal or whatever of the school pulled us both away to talk or something, but then he attacked us. Turns out, he was a manticore.” He shakes his head like that’s truly unbelievable, which it must have been, at the time. Now it’s just another fucking day for them. The thought sours Leo’s mood even more. “Thank the gods that Percy was there. He saved us. Or well. We actually got captured, but he protected us. Then the hunters got there and there was this helicopter for some reason. And then Annabeth, she…” He swallows. “She jumped onto the manticore’s back and stabbed him.” Leo feels a rush of pride, Annabeth Chase is probably one of the coolest people in existence.

“Damn.”

“Yeah… But the manticore fell off a cliff, and she was still stuck there. She ended up holding up the sky for an entire day after her capture.” He pauses for a long minute, face grim and pensive. “Every time they come to save me, something bad happens to them. Hades kids are the worst luck.”

Leo shrugs. “Not from what I've heard.”

“Valdez, they’re literally in hell because of me.”

“No they're not. They’re down there because of Arachne. Besides, you made it through there alone , and they’re going to make it too.” This calms Nico down marginally. “Anyway, the kids at camp told me all about the battle of Manhattan, about how you showed up with two gods and practically saved the day.” Nico huffs, presumably unhappy about the reminder of his amazing feats of bravery. “And before, you said you helped Percy with the curse of Achilles, which was basically the reason he survived. And now, you’re risking life and limb to help us out with a prophecy you aren’t involved in.”

“Yeah well. You were gone for less than a week and the team nearly fell apart.” At some point during their conversation, they have ended up facing each other. “And not just because no one understands how this boat works. They literally can’t survive without you.” Leo lets out a long sigh. 

“So, what you’re saying is, if I had given someone the Argo’s user manual, I could have stayed .”

“Stayed where?” Nico asks, but he looks as if he already knows the answer, and is only waiting for Leo to confirm his suspicions. 

“With Calypso,” Leo says, his voice a little pathetic. Nico freezes, and Leo makes a mental note to ask about that another time, but for now, he faces the ocean once again. “I'm going to go back for her. She deserves a chance at a life.” He feels lighter at the admission, at making his intentions known. It settles something in his gut. He hears Nico shift around.

“She should have been released already. That was part of Percy's bargain with the gods.”

They both fall silent. 

2. 

There's fire and there’s smoke and the world erupts in flames and so does Leo. And then Festus is gone but so is Gaea. And Leo. Leo is gone too.

It's been a few months since then.

Nico is laying on the grass. He isn’t quite sure where he is, only that the grass is green and sharp, and that it’s way too hot. And that it’s almost his birthday, or maybe his birthday already passed, he’s not really sure anymore. Frankly, he doesn’t care enough to check. All he knows is that he’s somewhere in the world where the grass is green in January or February, that he’s tired from his father’s last errand, and that he’s calm for the first time in weeks. 

The sun still hurts his eyes, even though they’re closed. He's sore and tired and a little out of breath, but he’s calm.

So calm that he’s slowly drifting off. That is, until he hears a voice. A voice that shouldn’t exist. Not anymore.

“Dude, you are so pale it’s actually unreal.” Valdez. 

“Being around dead people does that to you,” he replies, working himself up to opening his eyes. It would be mildly embarrassing if no one’s there and Nico is just talking to Leo’s spirit or ghost or something. Nothing that hasn’t happened before, but embarrassing nonetheless. 

Or maybe he desperately wants Leo to be alive.

Nico hears shuffling, and slowly peels his eyes open. Blue skies and curly brown hair. He lifts up his own hand in front of his face, checking to see that he hasn’t, in fact, joined Leo in the land of the dead, instead of the other way around. Thankfully, he is completely corporeal, if a little paler than usual.

So Leo is alive, and he’s staring down at Nico. Relief floods through him so hard that he gets a bit dizzy.

Nico sits up. 

“Speaking of dead people.” Leo sighs out a laugh. He looks tired. “You’re alive.”

Leo blinks. Once, twice, then he pats his legs, then his arms, then his face. He smiles, but it’s strained, barely reaching his eyes. He seems a lot sadder than usual, and if it were anyone else making that observation, they would take it to mean that Leo was moderately sad. But it was Nico, and ever since they’d met, Nico had recognized that Leo was sad. He was trying his hardest not to be, but sometimes that isn’t enough.

“Unfortunately for you, your father, and the fates, I lived!” He says it like it’s a fact. A fact he resents and fights, any chance he gets. This makes Nico’s gut wrench. He furrows his brows. “I'm gonna be honest, you are not as surprised and or angry as I thought you would be.”

Nico shrugs. “I had a bit of a hunch,” he says, choosing to omit the fact that the hunch had been nothing more than a gut feeling and awful wretched hope. He has lost so much for someone so young, he doesn’t know if he can keep losing. “I saw you die. I felt your soul ascend. But afterwards, it was harder to discern. It’s like, yeah, you were totally dead, but also you were alive?” Nico waves his arms around, trying to convey his point. That Leo really had been dead, but somehow alive at the same time. Or maybe neither. 

“Oh I totally died. But I had the physician’s cure thing from Asclepius.”

“That makes sense. After you… after. I went back…” He pauses. “I went back home. Checked the Isles and Elysium, and when you weren’t there, I asked my dad. He wouldn’t say a word.” Nico lifts his hand in a one armed shrug, as if to say that’s how I knew you didn’t actually get blown to pieces by the catapult that I totally could have stopped. It was only the half of it. Nico’s search for Leo in the underworld was frantic, fueled by guilt and grief and the need to do something, anything , but sit still. 

Leo’s staring at the swing set across the field, one of the swings still swinging minutes after a little girl hopped off. “What makes you think I wasn’t in Asphodel,” he says, not looking at Nico, his voice a shadow of his joking tone. He's trying so hard to be normal, to remain unaffected.

He only looks back after the silence stretches for a while. Then seeing the way Nico’s face has hardened, brows drawn in, eyes full of concern, he grins weakly. 

“Listen, if anyone knows how to spot a hero, it’s me. That's like, part of my job, actually. And let me tell you, Valdez, even without the heroic sacrifice, you are one hell of a hero.”

Leo’s eyes glimmer and Nico softens. 

“Thanks,” he whispers, “It feels like it was all for nothing though.” He tugs at the grass. “Not the dying and saving the whole entire world thing, but the leaving everyone behind. I feel so selfish, just leaving everyone to worry while I, what, trapeze the world with a girl who didn’t stay?” He shakes his head. “What the fuck am I even doing anymore? Soul searching? I mean it worked out for Caly, I guess.” He’s tearing the grass out even harder, a sort of aggression Nico has only ever glimpsed from Leo. It's understandable. 

“So you found Calypso again,” Nico says, trying to focus on the (possibly) positive part. “That's pretty impressive.”

Leo shrugs, but finally looks away from the grass massacre. “Yeah, I guess. She joined the hunters though. It makes sense since they see the world and don’t date, a nice change of pace for her. I guess some of her soul searching rubbed off on me though, since I realised that I wasn’t like, actually in love with her. She's a great friend though.” Leo lies down, and after a minute, Nico joins him. The sun is still warm and the grass is still sharp. 

He wonders what dying was like for Leo. If it was similar to Nico’s own deaths down in Tartarus, stretches of darkness and then sudden light, hiccuping breaths and half collapsed lungs. He has half a mind to ask, but it seems like it’s still a sore spot, and Nico isn’t even sure if his own experience is far enough behind him to relive without too much pain.

“So,” Leo says, “What brings you here to this fine grass field?” He rolls onto his side to face Nico, and Nico follows suit.

“Just finished an errand for my dad, wanted a break.” Like a birthday vacation he wants to say, but doesn’t.

“So you didn’t stay at camp.” Leo doesn’t sound surprised, and if Nico was less tired, the comment would sting more.

“I stayed for a week, I promised Jason I'd try. But it was too much for me.” And not enough. Because Reyna and Hazel weren’t there and neither were you. “Plus I was being flirted with a little aggressively and I genuinely do not know how to handle that.” 

Leo laughs, the tense lines of his face relaxing for the first time. “Oh man, I would pay to see this happen in real time.”

Nico grins. “Guess you and I will have to be at camp at the same time then.”

“Guess so.”

It’s an unspoken promise, more reassuring than anything that’s happened to Nico since… well since Percy promised to take care of Bianca. But he has hope. It isn’t a dire promise by any means, nothing bad will come of it being unfulfilled. All it secures is a near future event. A day at camp with a friend whose company Nico enjoys. 

It was only then that he realises how much he actually misses all his friends. It’s weird not seeing at least one of them every day, after being on the Argo II for so long, and then taking the Athena Parthenos back with Reyna and Hedge. God he misses Reyna. He has to visit her soon.

But for now, there is the sun and the grass and Leo, still looking at Nico, like he has an answer to a question neither of them have asked.

“It's not unfortunate for me,” Nico says, “By the way.” 

“What's not unfortunate?” 

“The fact that you’re alive.” Leo smiles softly. Then his grin sharpens and the glimmer that was missing returns, and Nico thinks, there he is.

“Golly gee, Nico.” Leo pushes himself into sitting so he can fake swoon more effectively. “Keep saying things like that and I might start thinking that you like me.” 

Nico rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling. He sits up and bumps Leo’s shoulder with his own. “Don’t get it twisted, Valdez. I hate your guts.” He tries to add venom, but he’s smiling so hard it’s unconvincing. God Nico hasn’t smiled this hard in so long, it actually hurts him a bit.

“You wound me, truly, and here I thought we were best friends!” 

Nico laughs. “Maybe I just wanted some company on my birthday.” 

Leo turns to Nico incredulously. “It's your birthday ?”

“Actually I have no idea what day it is, but it’s like, in the area I think.” Leo tsks in his direction and sticks his whole arm in his magic toolbelt that Nico still doesn’t understand. He pulls out an entire fully-functioning digital alarm clock. 

“In New York, it is currently eleven twenty pm on January twenty-seventh.” He levels a look at Nico. “When's your birthday?”

“January twenty-eighth.” Nico smiles as innocently as he can. He hopes without hoping that Leo will stay until the clock in New York strikes midnight, so he won’t have to spend at least the start of another birthday alone. He can go back to the underworld, to his father and Persephone, the option is always there, but no matter how hard Hades tries, it doesn’t quite feel like Nico’s home. He isn’t sure he has one.

Leo’s eyes go wide and his jaw drops in the most over-exaggerated shock Nico has had the pleasure of seeing. “You bastard –” 

“Yeah, that’s me. And you too,” Nico interjects quietly, but Leo continues on as if he never spoke.

“–I've been here for, what? The better part of the day–”

“Less than two hours, really.”

“–and you have the sheer audacity to not tell me that it’s almost your birthday!–”

“I didn't exactly know.”

“–Me! your recently revived best friend on a soul journey–”

“Okay, wait. Since when were you my best friend!” Leo raises a single eyebrow, looking as if Nico had asked the dumbest question he has ever heard.

“Uh, since I found you lying in the grass in a total coincidence in a world where coincidences literally don’t exist. Duh. ”

“Are you willing to fight Reyna for the best friend title? Because she will fight you for it.”

Leo shudders in fake fear. “I really do not want to die again.”

“What, you’ve got something against the underworld.”

“I'll settle for second best friend.” 

“That's Jason,” Nico points out, choosing to ignore that this conversation with Leo is longer than any he’s had with Jason since… well he can’t remember.

“Pshh. Jason would happily give me that title and you fucking know it.” Leo grins maniacally, and Nico has never been so happy to see someone look that smug, especially at his expense.

“Shut up, Valdez.”

They lounge in companionable silence for a while, the way they used to on the Argo. It’s the most normal Nico has felt in a while, which may very well be his own fault, but he digresses. Leo’s silent company had always felt like a secret luxury, even though they had ostensibly been friends nearly the entire time. It’s something Nico has missed, this non judgemental presence. Leo’s death had merely reminded Nico of why he tries not to covet such things anymore. But now… Leo’s back, and on his birthday no less, and Nico was raised religious in a way that makes this seem fated, just as Leo says it is. 

He opts not to think about it, and resolves to visit both camps soon. Nico doesn’t want to waste a precious second of what he’s lost, because he is nearly certain that if things hadn’t ended as they did, that he and Leo would both still be at camp. That the lack of grief permeating the camp, alongside their friendship, would have been enough to make Nico stay. 

For now, though, they have the sun and their silence, and Nico has the knowledge that he’s the first person Leo found.

Leo places a warm hand on Nico’s shoulder, snapping him out of his stupor. He’s smiling gently, his other hand holding the clock. It has just gone midnight in New York.

“Happy birthday, Nico,” he says, the warmth of his hand permeating Nico’s entire body, heating him on the inside more than the sun has through the course of the day. 

Nico has the sudden urge to hug Leo, and instead of shying away from it, he pulls Leo in.

“Thanks, Valdez,” he mutters into Leo’s shoulder. The two of them are sitting down, which makes the entire endeavour somewhat awkward, but Nico can feel Leo deflate as he hugs back. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too.”

3. 

Leo comes back to camp. Everyone is angry and ecstatic. I guess that means Nico didn’t snitch. He’s glad though, he didn’t want to come back before he was ready. 

They threw him a party, pulled over the Jupiter kids as well. Nico wasn’t there. The others didn’t know where he was. 

He goes to sleep in his own bed. The one for the counsellor of the Hephaestus cabin. No one had replaced him in the time he was gone. They really did think the position was cursed.

He had missed his siblings, but he isn’t sure he wants to lead them. He isn’t sure about much at all. 

I went to Ogygia twice and all I got was this stupid crisis, he thinks, and then he laughs internally. He’s sure that Nico would laugh with him, if he was here. The thought reminds him of Nico’s birthday, of how Leo missed him in the months apart. It hasn’t been that long, since Leo didn’t want to show up while the summer campers were here too. It would have been too much. 

Despite the short time since they last saw each other, Leo misses him again. Sure, part of it is the understanding they have, a shared knowledge that their lives would be complicated even without all the demigod stuff but… Nico is probably the best friend Leo has ever had. He knows how that might sound to someone else, especially after everything he has gone through with Jason and Piper, but the two of them were falsely implanted in his memories, and his past with them is blurry and ephemeral. Nico though… Everything about Nico is real, and right now, all Leo really needs is to feel real again. He’s not sure that’s something he can have. 

The next day is quiet. Leo hadn’t slept well, even though he woke up just before lunch. Everyone who isn’t one of his friends or siblings gives him space, but the suffocation of your loved ones finding out you’re alive is enough to kill you. 

He slips away sometime after dinner, skipping campfires with the excuse that he needs more rest. Instead, he goes to Bunker Nine.

“This wasn’t here last time I was at camp.” Leo jumps so fucking high, and he does not scream. Not at all. His heart rate also definitely settles back to normal once he realises he’s not about to be brutally murdered. Definitely.

“Nico,” he says, breathlessly, “What the everloving fuck are you doing in here?” Nico turns around to face him, hopping onto a table in the process. 

“Exploring,” he says, deadpan, idly picking up a small toy Leo had whipped up ages ago. 

“Well maybe try not to scare the life out of the newly revived next time.” Leo tries to scowl, but mustering up any sort of hostility is difficult when his heart is still trying to exit his chest. In fact, he has to actively tamp down a smile.

“You and I both know you being alive isn’t a new thing, Valdez.” He raises a pointed eyebrow. Leo starts shuffling through papers. Who knew being dead would end up such a clerical nightmare.

“So you're sticking with the last name thing, huh.” 

“Don’t dodge my sentence.” 

“Fine.” Leo rolls his eyes. “What do you think?” he says instead, spreading his arms out. Bunker Nine is probably one of his biggest achievements, maybe even his biggest since it’s the only one currently still standing. He wants Nico to like it.

“It's homey. In a way.” Leo agrees. Bunker Nine feels more like home than the cabin does. or anywhere else except maybe Festus in Argo form. 

“It's practically my only home that isn’t a flying dragon,” he admits, turning back to the papers. His old designs make his stomach clench. The person who made those is long gone.

“What about your cabin?” 

Leo sighs. “I love my siblings, and I love camp… but they expect me to be a leader and…” He trails off, waving a rolled blueprint in the air. Nico nods, and picks up another one of Leo’s old knicknacks.

“People are difficult.” 

“Speaking of difficult people, what happened to the aggressive flirter?” Leo pushes the papers away, unconsciously deciding to tinker. It definitely isn’t because he needs something to keep him busy so that he can keep his reactions in check. Nope. 

“Uh… we went on a date.” 

Leo whistles, he does not look up from his work. “Nico di Angelo, ladies’ man .” 

“Oh I guess you wouldn’t know. Uhm. It was not a lady.” Leo does look up at that. Nico’s staring intensely at the floor, a deep blush spread across his face. 

“Well, then,” Leo says, “Nico di Angelo, gentlemen’s man.” 

Nico exhales in something like a laugh, but his body visibly sags as the tension leaves him. He’s left with a soft smile and his blush creeping down his neck, his feet swinging.

Leo feels himself soften at the sight, and he forces himself to look away before Nico looks up. He doesn’t want to mar their rapport, not just yet. For all he knows Nico’s a taken man now.

“How’d it go?” he asks, and Nico sighs a bit. 

“We didn't have much in common. I'm starting to realise most of the people I've liked don’t have much in common with me.” 

“That's a big mood.” 

“I mean not that I've had many crushes. Just like one or two… Well you know.” 

“I feel you. Everyone always assumes I get crushes easily, but it’s more like admiration.” Leo straightens up and stops his tinkering. Without noticing, he seems to have made a tiny skeleton. He hastily shoves it under the papers he was ruffling through earlier, and decides to ignore the implications of his creation. Instead, he goes around the table and hops onto the edge, so he and Nico are now facing each other.

“Yeah, I definitely get that” 

“So,” Leo waggles his eyebrows, abusing their proximity to gently kick Nico’s leg. “Who were these crushes of yours?” Nico’s face scrunches up, and Leo prepares himself to get a lecture on how it's none of your goddamn business Valdez .

But Nico takes a deep breath in and says: “You remember how the night after Jason and I came back from Diocletian's tomb, I told you that I had to confess something I wasn’t ready to accept.” Leo nods. “Well let’s just say Cupid is one son of a bitch who made me admit my crush to the person I knew the least about and was supposed to hate the most.” 

“That sounds unpleasant.” 

“It really was. But yeah. I had a crush on Percy. And I didn’t want to admit it because it... it made me feel like I was dishonouring my sister’s memory. Or like, going against what was right. I should have been angry at him. And I was. But he kept coming back for me. He kept trying to help me, after everyone else had already written me off. Plus there was the fact that he was a boy.” Leo reaches his leg out again, but instead of kicking, he gently presses his ankle to Nico’s calf, a silent gesture of solidarity. Getting outed by the actual god of love was a cruel twist of irony, in Leo’s opinion. He wasn’t sure that Aphrodite would approve of it, either. Leo had always known that love was a weapon, that’s why he wielded his feelings the way he did, but he couldn’t imagine the pain that would come from having your love used against you by the very deity people built a romance holiday around. The thought alone made his stomach churn.

They sat in their own brand of silence, only interrupted by the gentle whirring of the lights and their breathing. 

“I used to have a crush on Jason,” Leo said after a while, “And Piper. Kind of at the same time.” Leo could feel Nico looking at him. He didn’t look up. “This was back at wilderness school, before all this demigod stuff. I stopped when they got together, because I guess their friendship mattered more to me than being in a relationship.” He shrugs. “I couldn’t even be sure if the feelings were my own, or if they were Hera’s idea of a joke.” He huffs out a laugh. “I even thought for a while that it was her who sent me to Ogygia, either as a continuation of her taunting or like… some sort of weirdo peace offering.” He shrugs again, and then decides that he shrugs too much.

“And then there was Percy.” He smiles wickedly and looks up. “I'm pretty sure every living being on this earth has had a crush on Percy.” Nico scowls and looks away, but he’s still blushing and obviously holding back a smile, so Leo doesn’t take it personally. 

“Well I'm sorry for having eyes and a brain,” He quips quietly. And Leo laughs. He laughs and laughs and Nico joins. And all the apprehension of being home, of being alive, melts away. It doesn’t disappear, but it gets put in a box for later. Right now, there’s just Leo and Nico, and well, the spectre of Percy Jackson and all that he is. The image of a ghostlike Percy looming over them redoubles Leo’s laughter. 

He feels okay again.

When their laughing slows, he wipes his eyes and watches as Nico clutches his stomach, joy evident on his face in a way Leo doesn’t think he’s seen before, but would like to see again. 

“You really are something, Nico,” he says before he can stop himself. If Nico wasn’t so busy laughing, he likely would have noticed the way Leo softened as he spoke, but for now, Leo was happy to go unnoticed. 

“Right back at you, Valdez.”

4. 

It's an early summer day when Nico finds himself at Sally Jackson's door. With a little help from camp and with an overly enthusiastic blessing from Poseidon, she had been able to buy a house with wards against monsters. A sort of demigod safehouse, for anyone who needs it. 

And Nico needs it. Badly. 

He’d been doing a routine sweep of the neighbourhoods where monsters liked to congregate and things hadn’t gone as planned. None of them tried anything funny around him anymore. A few of them had seen him in Tartarus. Had seen his powers. They usually scattered when he arrived. But this bunch was different. 

Needless to say it hadn’t gone well. And though the neighbourhood was safe, Nico wasn’t. 

Blood slicks his hands and his vision, sticking his hair to his scalp and seeping through all his clothes. He is pretty sure he’s dislocated one of his arms. 

Nico’s just glad he didn’t wear his favourite jacket. 

Sally's house was closer than either camp, but shadow travelling here put spots in his vision, and just as he is about to fall forward, the door opens, and a familiar pair of arms catches. 

“Nico,” Leo says, softly, and then louder, he shouts, “Sally, get a room ready, Nico needs help.” Nico has just enough energy to force a smile, though it probably looks more like he’s sick. 

He blinks the blood from his eyes and says, “Thanks, Valdez.” 

Then everything goes black

When he comes to, his shoulder doesn’t hurt, and his wounds are closed. There’s a dull itch where the monsters’ claws had ripped into him and a small ache in the back of his head, probably from overexerting his powers. 

He opens his eyes, relieved to see that they aren’t crusted shut with blood. His face seems to have been cleaned, and his hands, too. But he's still wearing the clothes from before, now stiff and stained and scratching his itchy skin. 

He tries to push himself into sitting and nearly falls right back down. 

“Whoa there, partner,” Leo says, appearing in the doorway with a pile of clothes and a cup of nectar. “Let me help you up.”

He puts the clothes and the cup on the night table and gently places a hand on Nico’s unhurt shoulder. 

Well. They were both unhurt now, but you know. 

With Leo’s help, Nico props himself up, Leo shifting his pillow behind him. He then hands Nico the cup of nectar. 

He drinks it slowly, his taste buds filling with memories: Bianca’s favourite food from the Lotus Hotel, some pastry he didn’t know the name of, marshmallows from the campfire at camp, the apple juice he got with his McNugget Happy Meals, hot tea and mint leaves and warmth. Something that tastes like warmth. 

Nico has no idea where that particular memory came from. Or maybe he does, and this is yet another thing he isn’t quite ready to accept. 

He puts the cup down and shuts his eyes for a second, a preventative measure against his surely oncoming dizziness if he continues to think. God he hates realisations so damn much. 

“How’re you feeling?” 

And he wasn’t helping. Except he was. He really really was. 

“Like I just got torn apart by a bunch of monsters and then got cobbled back together,” Nico says drily. He knows that Leo will see through the bullshit sarcasm and straight into the fear, but he needs another moment before he can deal with that right now.

“Hey at least you did get put back together,” Leo starts, but his falsely jovial tone is shaky, and Nico remembers an explosion over camp, and the listlessness that followed. “Another ten minutes and you would've been…” Leo’s lips thinned into a severe line.

“You better not do something that fucking stupid again, Nico,” he said, all joking pretenses gone. Leo’s voice was low, a gravelly whisper. His eyes bore into Nico’s, and they’re shinier than usual. His lips start to quiver. 

“There was so much blood.” His voice thickens, like he’s holding back a sob. And unexpectedly, Nico feels a few tears drip down his own cheek. 

“There were kids around,” he says, staring at his hands, washed of blood, on his lap, where his clothes are still covered in it. “I couldn't have left them there.” Leo takes a sharp breath in, and as Nico braces himself for something biting, the hand on Nico’s shoulder shifts, and he is pulled into a hug. 

Leo stiffens for a second when Nico doesn’t hug back, but then he puts his arms around Leo and holds on tight. Like he’s still dying and Leo is the only way out. He can feel Leo’s shoulders shaking, and is vaguely aware of his own hiccupping breaths. 

He had nearly died. There had been so much blood he could have choked on it. The last time he was that close to death well… he was in literal hell.

“I was… I was so s cared ,” he says into Leo’s shoulder. Leo holds on tighter. 

They sit there, holding each other for a long while, and when their tears finally slow, Nico becomes acutely aware of his bloody clothes and matted hair. Of how he definitely still smells like dirt and monster guts, and he laughs. Leo pulls back, his hands still on Nico’s shoulders. 

“What's so funny.” He scans Nico’s face, eyebrows scrunching, as if this bout of laughter is the beginning of Nico’s descent into insanity. It’s a very real possibility, Nico thinks, but he also knows that his life is built on insanity, so it’s not anything to worry about. 

“I'm so gross right now.” He continues to laugh. Leo shakes his head, but he smiles warmly. 

“You really are.” 

After he calms down, Nico goes to take a shower. He'd tossed his clothes into a plastic bag and gave Leo very clear instructions to burn them. 

“That seems like the right call,” he’d said. 

After scrubbing off as many layers of his skin as possible and washing his hair like forty times, Nico finally emerges from the bathroom wearing some grey cotton sweatpants and a powder blue shirt with smiling dolphins and a sun with sunglasses on that reads ‘I’m dead inside’ in bubble letters. 

He also scrubbed the skull ring Bianca had given him in the bathroom sink till it shined, and he tucks the chain it’s on under his shirt, keeping it as close to his heart as possible. 

Leo is sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed Nico had previously occupied. He smiles when Nico returns and smiles even harder when he sees the shirt. 

“You actually wore it,” he says, “I was fully expecting you to scream at me to get you something else.” Nico huffs a laugh. 

“It's a pretty brilliant shirt, even though it’s a bit out of my colour scheme.” 

“I know right.” Leo stands. “Let's go get you some food.” Nico dutifully follows him out of the bedroom. 

Sally's house has pale blue walls and marble countertops. The floors are laminate, which is probably a good idea, considering how difficult it is to get blood stains out of the carpet. 

The entire first floor is a common area, with a giant kitchen and a comfortable living room. Nico knows the upstairs was different, basically an entire house on its own. It’s understandable that Sally would want her own kitchen and living room since the rest of her house usually has a demigod or two roaming around. 

The house is oddly quiet though, and Nico worries that he’s arrived at a bad time. Oh god, it had been sometime in the afternoon when he showed up, what if it’s the middle of the night right now and– they pass by a window, where the sun is very visibly in the sky. Okay. It isn’t the middle of the night. They arrive at the kitchen, with its colourful stools and stainless steel refrigerator. The clock on the microwave reads 14:40. He had slept nearly a whole day. 

The quiet of the household was even more unusual. 

“Where's Sally? And Paul?” Nico asks. Leo is pulling some sandwiches out of the fridge, alongside some juice. He pours them both a cup and slides a sandwich over to the barstool Nico’s sitting at. 

“They went to the doctor’s, something about prenatal care or whatever.” Leo shrugs. “Sally wanted to stay and wait for you to wake up but I told her to go ahead.” Nico is pleased with that. The last thing he wants is to be an inconvenience. “Besides, you’ve got master healer Leo Valdez at your service, plus you’re probably the toughest person I know, so.” He shrugs again, with only one shoulder this time, and Nico grins. 

“So you think I’m tough, huh,” he says, raising his eyebrows significantly.  

“You little bastard,” Leo replies, obviously feeling caught out, but he’s smiling too, a faint blush painting his cheeks. 

“Technically, we’re all bastards, and I'm taller than you.” Leo laughs then, placing the cup in front of him. 

“You’re the fucking worst.” He takes the seat at Nico’s side. 

“I thought I was the toughest person you knew.” 

“You can be both,” he says, shaking his head. 

They eat in companionable silence. 

“So what brings you to Sally's, anyway?” Nico asks, sipping his juice. 

“Originally, I came to do some repairs, but then I started to come here a couple times a week, sometimes just to vibe by myself. Or if there was someone around I'd help them. I got certified in first aid a while back so…” He shrugs. Nico is starting to think that Leo should get his shoulders checked out. “Everyone at camp treats me like I'm made of glass, or like I'm going to die again if they so much as breathe too hard in my direction. It fucking sucks man. Every time we play capture the flag, no one ever attacks me!” He waves an arm emphatically. “What kind of fucking game is that! I just waltz in and take the flag and everyone pretends it’s some huge victory every time. I'm sick of it.” He shakes his head and takes a long sip of his drink. 

“I get that. sometimes you just need to get away so you can feel like a person again.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Being a demigod sucks.” 

“It does. But hey, at least we got some friends out of it.” Nico smiles, and Leo smiles back and for the first time in a long long time, Nico lets himself feel a flutter of hope. 

“I did meet some pretty great people.” 

Leo bumps their shoulders, and Nico’s hope grows. 

5. 

July finds Leo back at Camp Half-Blood. 

It’s Jason's birthday, and the seven, alongside Nico, Reyna and Thalia, had all congregated in order to celebrate. Most of them would stay till Annabeth’s birthday and Leo is excited to see all his friends together again. He really is. 

It’s just… He feels like he’s walking on eggshells. Like one wrong move will make them lock him in his cabin indefinitely. Hell, he can’t even use any of the death jokes he’s got stored up. But there’s cake and there are streamers and it’s an overall okay time. 

The entire camp sings happy birthday, even though there’s a birthday every couple of days, and then Piper makes Jason spin around until he nearly falls over. 

It's hard to believe that things can change so fast. But that’s life. 

As the campfire dies down and the campers start to head back to their cabins, Leo slides off his bench and steps towards the fire. 

He sits directly in front of it, drinking in warmth he already has. 

Fire is the one of the only things that doesn’t shy away from him. 

He has a list, albeit a short one, but still, a list of things that don’t treat him like he’s fragile, don’t act like he’s liable to keel over and die at any moment. Fire is on it, so is the weather and Festus and– 

“It's getting late, Valdez.” 

Nico. 

Leo doesn’t turn towards him, instead opting to stick his arm into the flames. He can practically feel Nico’s eyeroll. 

“I'm just hanging with my best pal, campfire, here. I wouldn’t want to cut our time short.” He turns to Nico, who’s watching him with an amused face, one of his eyebrows raised. 

He’s had his hair cut, since they’d met last, and is now sporting an undercut which makes Leo’s heart do some funny things. He is also missing his trademark jacket, which exposes his Mythomagic t-shirt, which Leo knows Frank had purchased for his birthday. 

Nico sits down, a bit further from the fire, and Leo scooches over to join him 

“So what's the real reason you’re still out here? Because I can tell you’re tired, Valdez.” Still with the last name then, huh. 

“I just…” Leo contemplates lying, but if anyone will understand, it’s Nico. Hell, Nico already understands. “I don't want to go back to my cabin.” Nico nods as if this is the most normal thing in the world, avoiding your home and family because sometimes the way they look at you makes you queasy. It helps ease some of Leo’s guilt about ditching a family he so desperately wanted barely a year ago. 

“You can stay in my cabin, if you want,” Nico says, as if that offer doesn’t make Leo’s stomach jump into his throat. “I mean, Hazel was going to stay there but then the girls realised that Reyna doesn’t have anywhere to sleep, even though I, again, offered my cabin, but they were insistent on having a girls night or something. They’re all staying in the Hestia cabin tonight.” Nico pulls some grass from the ground and tosses it into the fire. “It's weird though, since Reyna's been favoured by both Athena and Artemis and probably a bunch of other goddesses and she could definitely just sleep wherever.” Nico shrugs and shifts so he can face Leo. Leo is already facing him. 

“Maybe they wanted to have a sleepover.” 

Nico furrows his brows. “Isn’t everyday a sleepover when you share a cabin?” 

“I guess, but it’s always more fun with friends.” 

“Huh. I wouldn’t know then. I'm usually the only one in the Hades cabin, and I've got my own room at Camp Jupiter, and at my dad’s.” 

“Are you saying you’ve never had a sleepover before?” Leo is shocked. Absolutely bewildered. Sure, the last time he had a sleepover (barring the Argo II, they were all in danger. It was not that fun.) was at one of his nicer foster homes. The one that was closest to adopting him before finding out that the house they just bought across the country didn’t have enough space for him. Which was a shitty excuse if he ever heard one. But still. Nico having never had a sleepover is something they needed to remedy. 

“I guess I haven’t.” 

“Jesus Christ you are deprived.” Nico laughs. 

“You can say that again.” 

“Then it’s decided.” Leo stands up, and holds his hand out for Nico, who rolls his eyes and takes it. “We’re having a sleepover.” Nico pulls himself up, but doesn’t let go of Leo’s hand. They stand there, smiling at each other, before Nico laughs, shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair. 

It’s an adorable scene, but Leo misses Nico’s hand in his. “Alright then, Valdez. Let’s have a sleepover.” 

Leo fist pumps the air and then decides that he wants to hold Nico’s hand again, and who is he to deny himself. So he grabs it and starts off towards the Hades cabin. Nico doesn’t protest.

The cabin interior has been renovated, fitting more to current Nico’s taste rather than 13 year old Nico’s. 

It’s weird to think of Nico di Angelo ever being young. Even though biologically, Leo was older than him. He's always seemed so… mature isn’t the right word, but maybe, hardened? Used to the cruel realities of the world? 

Even though Nico freaked the fuck out of Leo when they first met, he’d recognized that in him. The fact that Nico knew the world was a cruel and terrible place, and he still tried over and over to save it. 

Now that Leo thinks about it, Nico has nearly every right to let this place burn. So does he. The only good thing the world has ever given Leo is his friends, and his death has practically squandered that for the moment. But he digresses. 

The walls of the cabin are now light grey instead of black, and the floor is dark brown hardwood. There is one bed pressed in the far corner, the sheet made up, and a bunk bed on the wall opposite. It is abundantly clear that only a single person lives here, and not even full time. Between the doorway and the beds, there is a couch and a small coffee table sitting on a giant rug. There is also a desk with a rolling desk chair at the foot of the bigger bed, and most surprisingly of all, a keyboard sitting against the opposite wall. 

“You play the piano.” Leo says, somehow a statement and a question mixed together. 

“Yeah. My mom taught me, and then I picked some things up here and there.” Leo toes his shoes off and places them next to Nico’s by the door. 

“My mom taught me how to cook and bake, which is a shame since there's no accessible kitchen at camp,” Leo says wistfully. Despite the fact that he can basically will any food he wants into existence, it’s a shame he can’t make anything himself. 

Nico smiles at him mischievously and drops Leo’s hand. He feels the loss of it immensely. 

“If I show you something top secret, will you pinky promise not to tell anyone. Like at all.” His eyes are serious and imploring and Leo nods, like he can in any way deny Nico. 

He lifts his pinkie and hooks it around Nico’s. 

“Pinky promise.” Nico smiles. 

“Follow me.” He laces their fingers together and Leo feels warmer, though now he doesn’t have the campfire to blame. 

Nico pulls him toward the piano, but instead of playing it or something, he places himself in the gap between the foot of the bunkbeds and the keyboard. and then he shoves the wall with his shoulder. 

Except it isn’t a wall, because it swings open easily, unveiling a staircase leading upwards.

A second floor makes a lot of sense. The outside of the cabin is looming and scary but the ceiling is far too low to make any real sense. Leo doesn’t know why he hasn’t picked up on this before. He’s definitely spent more than his fair share of time staring at the Hades cabin as of late, so he should have noticed the discrepancy as soon as Nico let him in. He must be way more tired than he thinks. Yeah, that makes sense. 

Nico tugs on their conjoined hands as he starts up the flight of stairs. 

The staircase itself is dark and ominous, the way Leo expected the whole interior of the cabin to be, the way the cabin probably was before Nico remodelled. They stop at a landing and Nico rests his free hand on the doorknob. 

“I know there’s really no reason to keep any of this secret, but it’s just. You know. Nice to have something for myself.” 

“And nice to have a place to hide.” 

“That too.” he pushes the door open. It looks similar to downstairs, but smaller. There is still a bed, this time with messed up sheets pushed against the wall, but there is also an open kitchen and a bookshelf filled with books and CDs and board games that you surely can’t play by yourself. There are some beanbags near the bookshelf facing a small TV that sits on top of a short chest of drawers. probably where Nico keeps all his stuff. 

If someone were to look at the downstairs room, they would think that Nico lived with absolutely nothing. But up here. It looks lived in. 

It looks like a home. 

“So,” Leo says, drinking in the liveliness of the room. A stark contrast to the mostly untouched downstairs area. “This is your bunker nine.” Nico squeezes his hand. 

“This is my bunker nine.” Leo turns to Nico and smiles wide. 

“I love it already.” Nico rubs the back of his neck, his face slightly pink. 

“You and Reyna are the only people that know about it.” 

That makes Leo’s breath hitch. It makes him feel important. 

“Well golly gee, Nico, that almost makes me feel special,” he says, voice almost a whisper. 

Nico turns his face away and mutters, very quietly. “You are special.”

And Leo is going to die. 

This will be his deathbed. Standing in Nico’s secret room holding Nico’s hand with Nico in his heart and mind. He is going to die. So he decides he’ll do something before he does. 

He pulled on Nico’s hand, making him face Leo. And he rests his other hand on Nico’s cheek. And he pulls him even closer. And Nico lets his eyes fall shut. And Leo kisses him. And Nico kisses him too. 

“This is probably the best early birthday present ever,” Leo mumbles, lips still on Nico’s. Nico laughs and pulls away, and Leo isn’t even sad this time. Because he knows Nico will come back. 

“Speaking of which.” Nico drags Leo over to the bookshelf and picks up a wrapped package. They settle on the beanbags, hands unfortunately separated, and Nico hands the gift to Leo. “I was going to wait until your birthday, but…” He smiles. 

Leo feels fifty different things at once. He hadn’t been expecting birthday gifts. Especially not from Nico. 

He is touched and he is happy and he is a little lightheaded with joy and his face is warm from the kiss and holy shit Nico had kissed him back. It’s hitting him full force now. 

Leo only realises he’s blinking back tears when Nico looks at him with concern and asks: “Hey, are you okay?” 

Leo nods and smiles and says. “I just realised that you l ike me.” 

Nico huffs a laugh, and rolls his eyes. 

“Well genius , you like me too. So hah.” Leo tries to look thoughtful, as if pondering the very obvious fact. 

Then he leans in and kisses Nico again. 

“It appears I do.” They’re both smiling really hard. 

Nico scrunches his nose, which Leo finds endlessly adorable. “Gross.” 

Leo rolls his eyes, and decides that he actually is dead. That he died somewhere on the way up the stairs from the sheer force of Nico di Angelo with an undercut holding his hand. This must be Elysium.

“Now open it,” Nico urges, pointing excitedly at the gift. 

Leo gently tears open the wrapping paper, unveiling a small box. He lifts the lid, and inside is a bronze dragon, a little smaller than his palm. The dragon is attached to a thin chain. 

Leo picks it up slowly, and in awe. 

“I remember you once told me that, uh Festus was the closest thing you had to a real home. So I figured you’d want to carry some of that with you.” Leo feels like he’s going to cry. “I managed to salvage some of the metal that fell off back when… you know… and well, yeah.” And Leo is definitely going to cry. 

His heart clenches.

Nico had remembered a throwaway comment from months and months ago, and he had saved a piece of Festus even before that. And though he knows Nico cares about him, has known for a while, in some capacity, it’s still shocking, it’s exhilarating, to see it in motion. He looks at Nico and pulls the chain gently over his head. 

“I love it,” he says, trying to convey just how much he can’t yet articulate, and Nico smiles, obviously relieved. 

“I'm glad.” 

And he kisses Nico again, because that’s a thing he can do now. 

“Okay. I see that you have a kitchen up here. Which is probably the main reason you showed me this place, and now…” Leo’s expression turned devilish. “I'm going to make you regret it.” 

“Is that a challenge , Valdez.” 

“It's a guarantee.” 

“Then bring it on. What are we making?” 

“Cookies.” 

“I bet I can make them better than you.” 

“Well Nico, you’re forgetting one small detail.” Leo lights a small flame. “I am literally an oven.” 

“House rules. No powers allowed.” 

Leo pouts. “That's unfair.” 

“Are you sure about that?” Nico raises his eyebrow and opens one of the cupboards, pulling out ingredients for cookies. “Because I could totally just summon some dead pastry chef and have them do all the work.” Leo sighs and pulls himself onto the island. 

“Ok fine, I guess. but I'm still going to beat you.” 

“In your dreams, Valdez.”

Leo’s cookies were definitely better. 

+1 (a few years later)

“Leo, hurry,” Nico says, darting around their small New Rome apartment. “We’re going to be late and then our friends are going to kill us. And I'm pretty sure dad won’t let you cheat death twice.” Leo steps out of the bathroom, toothbrush in hand. 

“What if you like, asked him,” he says, “I'm pretty sure he’d make an exception for his son’s boyfriend.” Nico rolls his eyes, but he grins nonetheless.

“You overestimate how much I love you.” 

Leo laughs.

“Would you love me more if I hurried up?” Leo batts his lashes and sticks out his lower lip. Nico kisses him on the cheek.

“Will you hurry up if I say yes?” He hooks his arms around Leo’s neck and Leo tilts his head up to place a small kiss on Nico’s nose. 

“Probably not.” They both laugh.

“I will not hesitate to leave you behind, Valdez,” Nico says, pulling himself away from Leo, no matter how much he wishes they could just sleep in. 

The gloomy weather outside is literally begging for a lazy day of shitty hallmark movies and over sweetened hot chocolate. But alas, Christmas Eve is one of the yearly traditions they legally aren’t allowed to miss. 

“Again with the last names, di Angelo.” Leo wanders back into the bathroom. “I'm starting to wonder if the only way to make you stop is to change it.” Nico flushes at the implication. 

He really loves that idiot. 

“Bold of you to assume I'd stop even then.” He hears Leo laugh. It’s not something he will ever tire of.

“I guess it was a bit of a reach.” 

Nico counts and recounts all the gifts they’ve bought for their friends. Christmas this year is being held at Percy and Annabeth’s, and even though they lived in New Rome, their house is still pretty far away from Leo and Nico’s little city apartment. 

Nico sends up a thankful prayer to his father for giving him the ability to shadow travel. Then, satisfied that he hasn’t forgotten any of the presents, he leans against the doorway to wait for Leo, who is definitely the love of his life, and who he will, without hesitation, wrestle away from the underworld should he end up there any time soon. Nico looks out at their apartment, the tacky throw blankets on the most comfortable couch of all time, the bookshelf Leo made that swapped the spots of all the items weekly, their cat– Jane Maria Esperanza Valdez di Angelo, whom they simply called Jay –sitting curled up in front of the lit fireplace. It truly does feel like a home. 

But in his heart Nico knows without a shred of doubt, that anywhere he goes with Leo will be his home, one way or another. 

He’s a lovesick fool, and he couldn’t be any happier. 

“Ready to go,” Leo says, pulling his stupid Christmas sweater over his head, pausing in front of a tiny mirror to run a hand through his curls. “How do I look?” 

He turns to Nico, spreading his arms to display his sweater, which had a Christmas tree with real lights on it. 

“You look fucking stupid,” Nico says with a fond smile. God, his love for Leo is making it really hard to insult him. But that seems to be the answer Leo’s searching for, because he grabs Nico’s waist and kisses him. Nico smiles into the kiss and pulls back, but only far enough to whisper, “I love you,” before kissing Leo again.

“I love you too.” 

They pull apart, but grasp each other's hands, twining their fingers. They each pick up a bag of gifts with their remaining hands and smile at each other. 

Nico realises then that they’re probably the most sickening couple out there, besides maybe Percy and Annabeth, and even then it was close.

Leo squeezes his hand as they shadow travel away, and although they are leaving their house behind, neither of them ever leave home.