The Rebirth

Two months later…
Nico stretched around his little crooked area. Clothes were stewn across his couch. The light glowed softly, throwing blurred shadows around the space. Only a small spot stayed clean- the altar for sacrificing to the gods, and Bob the Titan, and Damasen.
He was watching a movie with Reyna.
She was having a small mid-life crisis, not really sure what to do with herself after finally breaking off her last New Rome volunteer projects. She was wondering if she should, ah, “settle down” (as much as Reyna could settle down) with the guy next door.
Literally. The guy who lives just outside of camp. The one that always saw her around, but never got close enough to her to talk, because she’d mysteriously disappear.
The one that was always a little afraid of her.
The one who finally succeeded in running her down to get a date just last year.
The one who was so completely and absolutely normal and so genuinely sincere that Reyna couldn’t help but fall for him. Just a little bit.
The one she didn’t know how to act around.
“He’s so sweet,” she complained, her eyes shining. Nico didn’t know that Reyna’s eyes could shine like that. “He needs to toughen up for the information I’m going to have to tell him someday. It will never work out between us. He’s just so… rgnh!”
The word she was about to say was too embarrassing for her to admit it, even at age 29.
“Adorable,” Nico said it for her, a little dryly. He was ecstatic for Reyna. Absolutely ecstatic, as well as everyone else who watched her fall just a little bit more every day for the sixth grade teacher on the other side of the hill.
But he’s heard this story. Many times.
And he knew where Reyna and this guy were heading, despite her many attempts to deny it.
Straight to the marriage altar. He gives it another year, maybe two.
Tops.
They really were head over heels.
Nico was only a little bitter. Percy and Annabeth were married, like everyone knew they’d be. Frank and Hazel- duh. They’d already acted like a married couple during the first months of them dating (ah, relaxing on the deck of a warship headed into battle every day, discussing ways to avoid death, how romantic)- the ring on their fingers made almost no difference. Calypso and Leo didn’t need a marriage. Everyone knew they’d be together for as long as they could possibly be; the only question was whether Leo would choose immortality or not…
Jason and Piper were waiting, but clearly they’d choose soon enough. Even Octavian had a new boyfriend, with a lasting relationship of two years…
Nico…
Has dated around.
And has hated every single person he came into contact with.
“Small talk,” he’d explained to Reyna just a few conversations earlier, shuddering. “I suck at it. They just don’t really understand where I come from, what I’ve done, what I’ve had to do. It’s hard to find a person to understand. And what a great selection of stories I have to tell- ‘this one time, while wading through the fiery rivers of Hell…’ ”
Reyna arched an eyebrow. “What about demigods? Date someone more like you.”
“Oh, yeah, you mean the approximately 7.5 people who are gay in New Rome? Please. I’ve already evaluated them a long time ago.”
That pretty much ended that topic of discussion.
“Did you give up on your little project on the Reborn?” Reyna asked, a couple of minutes later, her legs tossed casually over Nico’s lap. She rested her face on her hand as she watched the dramatic superhero soar up into the sky on the tv screen.
Nico’s head started pounding. He remembered all the research he’d done over the years, all the information he’s gathered, all the new knowledge he’s gained, and how little a difference that all made, really. Because he just needed one step. One step, and all this knowledge would be worth it. But without it, everything he’s done, everything’s he’s realized… is wasted.
He cursed. “No! The gods, no. I would never… All the stuff I’ve sacrificed, all the people I’ve had to lose to get this far-“ he swallowed. “I’ve been waiting. For so long now. I have all the information I need for when the time comes… And there are so many people I’ve tracked down… And I’ve been training myself and these powers for so long…”
“Okay,” Reyna said seriously, gently. “Okay. I understand.”
Nico realized how riled he’d just gotten- he was standing up, fists clenched, eyes blazing. He didn’t mean to lash out like that, and he definitely wasn’t angry at Reyna for all of this. He was… He was angry at…
The doorbell rang.
When he opened it, he thought he could hear the Fates laughing.
“Nico,” Daniel shifted uneasily, his eyes filled with fire. “I need to come in.”
Suddenly Nico was eighteen again, young and stupid. His eyes flashed to Reyna in a wide panic, who got up and surveyed the situation.
She paled. He could see the gears turn in her brain; could see them whirl and focus and decipher and decide what she should do-
“I have company,” Nico’s voice sounded strangled. He wasn’t expecting this. He should be able to get himself, his feelings, his heart under control, but… he wasn’t expecting this.
Daniel’s eyes flashed again as they flickered towards Reyna. They softened into something more mellow, like a campfire, but the fire was still there.
Nico’d rarely, rarely, rarely, rarely ever seen Daniel like this.
And he never saw him act remotely like this in front of other people.
“Nico,” Daniel begged, in a single word. Stories and worlds of emotion and experience and thoughts and feelings poured out in two syllables. Ready.
“I thought I made it clear-“
“You did. And something was made clear to me. You have to let me in, Nico, I don’t care if Reyna hears-“
“Actually,” Reyna had apparently just decided something. The gears stopped clunking, her back was straight, her head was nodding. “I was just leaving.”
Nico whipped around so fast that cold darkness in the air rippled away from him. “Reyna.”
She stared stonily back at him. She glared at him pointedly. “Work this out” was the clear message.
Traitor, he mouthed in complete horror as she got her bags together and headed for the door.
You’re welcome, she mouthed back, as serious as ever. She nodded to Daniel and left them.
Together.
Alone.
Nico couldn’t find the words he’d been wanting to say, suddenly. All those conversations he’d made in his mind, all those speeches he was so ready to blare, everything he needed to let out had been put on hold. Out of reach.
And for a terrible, painful second, everything was quiet.
It was one of the worst noises Nico has ever heard.
And then- “You never talked to me after that. Ever.” Daniel had begun to speak. He was still outside the doorway, and looked a little hellish, with his hair not combed and his face not lit up and his shoulders drooping. “Ever, until a month ago. And you disappeared. You disappeared for a long time. You were gone from New Rome. How was I supposed to know where you went? And when you came back, you didn’t even seem to care, you little-“ Not very attractive names poured out from the angry parts of Daniel’s soul. Nico flinched.“!!!!!! And I never knew that it hurt! You wouldn’t even look at me! How was I supposed to know that you were hurting?! You never told me you were hurting!”
“What kind of stupid question is that?” Was the only thing Nico managed to say, in shock. “How could you not know I was hurting? It hurts right now!”
Daniel winced and let out a breath of painful air, like he just got socked in the stomach. Or the chest. “You’re so stupid, Nico- you’re so stupid! You never think about anyone except for yourself, you know- God, you and your stupid pride, if you’d just told me, if I’d known-“
“My pride? What pride do I have? I have nothing to be proud of!”
“Why now? Why did you have to tell me that now, that you still care, after I just started to stop, and now I can’t stop-“
“I have no idea what you’re talking about-“
“I can’t even believe, after all these years-“
“Can you be focused for two seconds?!”
“I don’t understand why you never came back, if you cared so much. Why am I the one running? Why do I have to be the one to suck it up? Why are you the one that drops a line at a party and ruins my life? Why?”
Nico stared at the guy in front of him, his insides slowly cracking, the ice in his heart melting and shattering and stabbing all his other organs, as he asked, “Ruining your life?”
“I am not being dramatic.”
But Nico already knew that. Because the same thing was true for Nico.
“I guess I thought… we’d made our decisions.”
Daniel choked again, like he was physically being socked by every word Nico said.
“And that you wanted to punish me for them with the worst hell you could imagine.”
Daniel swayed, his eyes reflecting the processing of these words, his face contorting into misery. He closed his eyes.
“Did you ever think- just for a second, maybe- that your hell was my hell?”
Something cracked harder inside of Nico.
Three years.
Even after three years.
Nico cursed violently. He poured out every cuss word he could think of. After a while, Daniel joined in, and they were both angrily shouting at each other, nonsense words, added on by the neighbors screeching at them to shut up, until their voices ran hoarse and dry, and they were slumped over in exhaustion.
And when they couldn’t scream any more, Nico noticed that something still was twitching in the tired brown eyes, something warm and sparkling-
Nico sighed. “You should come in.”
Daniel wavered. “I should.”
And they stared at each other.
Nico shifted awkwardly to the right, gesturing at his little room. Daniel took a couple of steps in.
They didn’t speak.
They both shuffled over to the couch. The movie was nearing to the end by now- the superhero was making the sacrifice, jumping off the building to save the city-
They sat just the uncomfortable amount of “far away” and “too close”. Nico dragged some clothes off the sofa, suddenly feeling self-conscious. His mouth was still way too dry. He swallowed, and tried to keep swallowing, to itch the scratchy parts of his throat.
There were a tense couple of minutes were they just watched the movie blankly. The town is in shock. Everyone can’t believe it. Everyone’s numb. The hero has sacrificed himself.
And finally, Nico realized what was actually happening right now. His head stopped being so blank. He began to blink away the red in his eyes. He remembered the feeling of blood coursing in his cheeks.
And he let out a breath, relaxing and slumping as he did. His eyes drooped. His heart fluttered a bit, through his chest, in his hands, in his head.
He rested his head on Daniel’s shoulder, tentatively. And he stayed that way, for a feather breath.
And then he curled up against his side, and Daniel shifted, laying himself down across the couch, with Nico curled up against his chest, their breathing becoming synchronized. Daniel buried his face into Nico’s hair.
Nico could hear the crowd gasp on the TV. They began applauding. The hero has come back!
“I know,” Nico mouthed to the crowd against Daniel’s heartbeat. “Amazing.”
“What was that?”
“Nrthingr.”
“What?”
In response, Nico’s hand reached for Daniel’s, feeling around, until their fingers laced together, like old times.
A beat, and then-
“We still have problems to take care of. We can’t just ignore them. There’s going to be a lot more yelling and screaming and fights to come.”
Nico sighed. He knew that already. He was quiet for a second, and then a muffled response came from his sunshine’s shirt-
“But it’ll be worth it, in the end.”
And finally they allowed themselves to that soaring feeling, their hearts not really able to believe what was happening until this moment, and let their heads go dizzy.
Nico, tippling on the verge of sleep, drowning in happiness, deliriously thought he could make out three old lady voices, awwwing in approval.

Notes

IM SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING THIS CHAPTER WAS KIND OF AN UNDERWORLD TO WRITE IF YOU CATCH MY DRIFT