The Rebirth

Meanwhile-

Nico smashed his fist on the table. One of them had finally died- a very peaceful death, of course- and Nico hadn’t gotten there in time to see it.
Maybe the person (a very talkative old man named Gerald who insisted on believing Nico was Batman) wasn’t the guy Nico was looking for, but he’ll never know now, will he? And even if Gerald hadn’t gotten into the Isles of Blest, Nico still could’ve gained a whole lot of information by watching the judgment. The numbers are narrowing down. Overall, Nico’s only tracked down twenty reborn.
Only seven of them live in America, close to where Nico can keep good, solid tabs on them.
Of those seven, only three have any connection whatsoever to Greek or Roman mythology.
Of those seven, only two live in California or the surrounding areas.
And of those seven, none of them seem to have a particular interest in dying anytime soon.
Gerald was the closest thing he got, and by the time Nico got down into the Underworld, he’d moved on.
And Nico couldn’t find him.
Or maybe…?
Maybe…
Nico smacked his head. Duh. Of course.
How could he forget?

**********************
Burger King was going to have to do. Nico didn’t know where the nearest McDonald’s was.
“Sorry,” he apologized, just in case Gerald was a Big Mac type of dude.
He was slumped over the freshly dug hole, staring off into space. He didn’t know what he was waiting for. A monster could attack any second now, since he was perched on a hill that just overlooked Camp Jupiter’s boundaries. Nico could see the Pluto temple from here- an obsidian blob smeared with silver highlights and diamond sparkles. The lights in New Rome below were soft and steady. The air tasted of evening dew and smog. There was a murmur of traffic.
Nico’s fingernails were quite fascinating. He’d been studying them for ten minutes now.
He really didn’t know what was the matter with him. Laziness? Exhaustion? He forced himself to trudge his hand toward the McDonald’s bag.
A small rustle, and Nico’s senses blared into action. His sword was disturbed from its peaceful position and slashed immediately into the air, just barely scraping the intruder. He expected a wail, or maybe a hiss, and another attack.
Instead, a small groan/ laugh rang through the sky.
“I’m-“ the thing put his hands up. “Ouch.”
Nico’s sword stayed in the same place. His eyes didn’t change glares for a moment.
“Ouch,” it said again. “I- Hi. Hey. Hello. Great spot you’ve got here. I don’t know if it’s the best night for a picnic, though, yeah?”
Nico didn’t respond. Determination to fight melted to extreme irritation. Great idea, to sneak up on an armed demigod in the dark.
Of course, this person could still be a monster… Medusa had a human voice…
Nico reached into his pocket and threw up some specks of Lumifleur from Persephone’s garden. The area within a fifteen foot radius lit up faintly- which was a little risky but Nico could deal with anything that came this way- and revealed the intruder’s face.
“Pretty,” the guy commented with a beaming smile that had nothing to do with the Lumifleur.
“You can turn around now, actually.” Nico was surprised to hear his voice so calm, so seemingly unaffected, so uninterested. “This is a private party.”
“I was checking up on you,” the boy took a step to the side and started to circle around. “To make sure you were okay.”
A very thin scratch of blood had revealed itself on the outer edge of the other boy's jaw. It was hard to tell the color of hair in the night- white? Gray? His eyes looked blurred. Could it be the mist?
“I’m peachy,” Nico flashed his sword again, stopping the guy from reaching down to grab Gerald's Burger King. “You’ve checked up. And now you can leave.”
“Calm down with the sw-“
“That wasn’t an offer.”
“I think I’d rather stick around.”
“You aren’t welcome.”
“What are you doing here, exactly?”
Nico chose to slash the guy’s shirt, since the other demigod obviously wasn’t getting the point. He could see the dude’s eyes now- they were brown, and very warm. A splash of freckles sprinkled across his nose and cheekbones.
And he was still grinning. How was that possible?
His grin quieted to a small smile, like he knew Nico was studying him. His eyes roamed from Nico’s hole to his sword to his face, sweeping across his hair and his body. Nico felt his insides flush in anxiety, even though his face remained as collected as ever.
“You’re fascinating,” the guy suddenly announced. “And my name is Daniel.”
And then Daniel turned around to go.
Nico waited for a couple of minutes, poised and ready with sword in hand pointing towards the dark. He straightened up.
So Nico was “fascinating”. He barked out a laugh, before facing back and reaching for the Burger King.

Notes

very short, very lame chapter after about six days of no writing

i do suck

and i'm going to fast write nonstop for the next few days because of it JUST YOU WAIT I PROMISE WITH ANOTHER OATH (i guess you can say ANOATHER oath) UNLESS AN EMERGENCY HAPPENS THAT I WILL UPLOAD AT LEAST A CHAPTER A DAY FOR THE NEXT FOUR DAYS AND THEY WILL BE LONGISH