Death and Water

I wake up lazily to see I’m the only one in our cubicle. I grumble and curse them under my breath as I put on my shoes and hurry to the dinner. I find Kelly and Nico talking in low hushed voices, bent over omelets and bacon. Kelly was giggling and staring at Nico with her big seductive blue eyes while Nico stared at her as if he could anything he liked with her, which he probably could. I clear my throat uncomfortably, and they both look up, Kelly surprised, Nico not as much.
“Good morning” I say with fake cheerfulness. I was about to take a seat next to Kelly, thought about it and hesitated, thought about it again and decided I could take the daughter of Aphrodite on if I needed to. She didn’t seem very glad to see me, but at least she didn’t say anything.
“How’d you sleep” Nico asks casually taking a bite of bacon. He flags down the waiter, and gives her a flirty smile. She instantly repsonds and walks over to us, putting her hand on Nico’s chair.
“What can I get you sweetheart?” she aks, looking directly at him.
“Can I get another omelet for my friend” he says, one side of his mouth quirking up in his natural smirk that makes girls fall on their knees..
“Sure baby, be right back” she says, not bothering to look at me, and walks away. Kelly and I both roll our eyes.
“Fine. What if I don’t like omelets?” I argue. He lifts a lazy eyebrow, which was ridiculously cool looking, and I was instantly envious. He was really good at that.
“do you not like omelets?” He asks, setting his fork down and leaning in closer just to humor me. I roll my eyes and grab his water, taking a sip and setting it down in front of him.
“They’re fine” I say nonchalnetly, as I begin to make the water in the cup swirl around in a mini hurricane, faster and faster until it disappears in half a second, without even touching the glass. Kelly and Nico both blink, not knowing what to think for a moment.
“Let me get you a refill” the waitress says pouring more water in the cup, surprising all three of us, then setting the eggs down, smiling at nico and walking away.
“Impressive” Kelly says, taking a bite of her omelet. I don’t respond to her, but just keep staring at nico, who was watching me intently.
“Are you going to eat your omelet” he says nodding to it, but not taking his eyes away from mine.
“I love omelets” I say, smiling slyly and letting the eye contact drop, I could hear him inhale sharply. I swallowed my omelet so fast I was done before nico could take a sip of water.
“Don’t tell me you poisoned it” he says right as the water gets to his lips, a drop of water resting on his bottom lip.
“Haven’t figured out how to do that yet” I say wiping my mouth with a napkin. He smiles, licks the droplet from his lip, and takes a sip. “So, whats the plan for today?” I ask.
“Nico and I were going to look around and hang out by the balcony, it’s supposed to be super romantic” she says giggling. Nico doesn’t respond, continuing to eat his omelet peacefully.
“Nico?” I ask, he looks up. “What abot that thing we heard last night?” I say.
“what? Oh yea. Sorry Kelly, I need to help Jade out with that, you know, monster and important demi god and everything” he says, she pouts and pushes her chair back angrily, storming off, leaving half her omelet and the smell of vanilla behind.
“I hate vanilla” he says moving his chin up and wrinkling his nose.
“Why did you have to do that” I say, putting my utensils down with a clatter and glaring at him.
“Do what?” He asks, trying his best to give me an innocent expression, but even that looked like he could see me naked.
“Make her angry! You know I have to deal with her, and you, for the next week, and it would be great if it were less unpleasant then it already is”
“Really? Because im havin a great time angel” he says, giving me a grin, one of the few I have ever seen. It seems they cross his face when he's making fun of me, or making me suffer. I roll my eyes.
“Don’t call me angel” I answer stoutly.
“Does it bother you?” he asks.
“Yes”
“Good. Then it stays” he answers, nodding his head and motioning the waitress again. I let out a sigh.
“I’m gonna back to the dorm, come and get me when you're done getting whatever you want from the dyed blonde waitress” I say, scooting out of the chair.
“I’m gonna get everything I want, just like I always do” I hear him say softly before I left. The thought disturbed me. How did nico have such a strong presence over women? Why did they fall over his feet? He wasn’t that handsome, and sure the bad boy act worked, but not everyone can be attracted to that.
I walk into the little compartment that held our beds that can be folded up during the day, surprised to see Kelly there. I don’t know why, I mean it’s her room as well, I just though that a gorgeous girl like Kelly had better hings to do, like running around making people fall in love with her for fun.
“Hey” I say lamely as I walk in. She looks up at me, her big blue eyes red from tears, and her nose and cheeks were a bright pink, so she looked even more like a doll. I had never met anyone who looked pretty while crying, but I guess she did.
“Hi” she says, not mean, more like an actual greeting. I sit down next to her awkwardly, afraid to get too close, but she doesn’t recoil so I don’t move away.
“are you crying because of what nico said, because if you are, im really sorry, I mean if its that important to you I don’t want to take Nico away from you” I say. She just shakes her head, laughing softly.
“its fine, you guys should probably make sure theres nothing on board, theres a lot of innocent people here, I would hate for anyone to get hurt because of us” she sounded genuinely worried. She must have seen the surprise on my face and laughed again. “Love has very many different sub-categries, including empathy and human care. Wonder why so many of her kids turned out to be jerks?” she asks no one really, just out loud.
“I guess I don’t now any of your siblings well enough to judge them” I say quietly. She smiles, turning her head to me, and I’m blown back again at how pretty she is, no wonder why Nico is dating her.
“You're a good person jade, a real hero, you would give your life for people wouldn’t you?” she aks, which throws me off. I didn’t think Kelly would think of me as ahero, especially since my own father didn’t think of me as one. I was bad, but maybe the daughter of the goddess of love and compassion could also see the good in people.
“I hope so” I say quietly, she nods, likes shes sure I will. “thank you” I say quietly, she was abou to respond when Nico walked in to the compartment. He seemed a little thrown off to see us both together wihtout trying to kill each other. He quickly pulls his mask over his emotions and becomes as cool and snarky as ever.
“Ready to go or do you guys need more girl talk” he asks, crossing his arms. I resist the urge to slap him, and Kelly merely glares at him. He sighs, running a hand through his long black messy hair, “I knew this would happen”
“what would happen” I ask, poison in my voice.
“that you two would realize that you're both pretty cool, become friends, and gang up on me” he says, a small half smile playing on his lips, his dazzling blue eyes shining out beneath his black hair. The both of us shake our head at him, and I stand up, say goodbye to Kelly and follow Nico out the compartment and down the hallway.
“So you think im cool?” I ask, keeping up with his strides, he skims his hand along the compartments, as if trying to feel the presence of monsters.
“Don’t let it get to your head Rhodes” he says, pressing his ear against one of them.
“I don’t know, a compliment like that, from the son of hades himself, I don’t see how I could keep it from getting to my head” I tease, he glares at me, but theres a playful glint in his eyes.
“There’s something in here” he says motioning his head towards the compartment, at the same time letting some hair slip from his eyes.
“I’ll go first” I say, grabbing my knife, he eyes me, but shrugs and stands back as I open the door. I step in quickly, holding my knife out, ready to slash, but find the compartment empty, I was about to yell at Nico, but I feel him tense up behind me as he enters.
“I swear” he whiseprs quietly in my ear, his lips brushing over my hair, a shiver going down my spine at the closeness of him. I shake my head and search the compartment, both of us opening bags and suitcases, but finding nothing.
“What the hell are you guys doing!” a man yells at us, startling both of us. I awkwardly let a pair of jeans drop on the floor. The man was in his mid forties, balding, and out of shape, his beady gray eyes were looking at us incrediuously. I was about to start apologizing when I see something slip past the wndow outside. I rush past the man, pushing him aside while Nico begins apologizing and following me out.
I stumble out into the empty hallway, looking both ways before running to the right. Why? I do not know, don’t ask me. I turn a corner and see a slip of shadow around the next corner. I sprint down the next corridor, not caring if my steps are super loud. I can hear nico behind me, trying to keep up.
As I turn around the next corridor, something smases into my side, knocking me into the wall. “What do you think you're doing princess of the sea” a creature whispers in my ear, scratching his long gross dirty nail along my cheek.
I hear a thump and the thing is pulled off of me. I stand up frazzled, but Nico is looking just as dazzed with me, holding his fist out like he had grabbed something. “Where did he go?”

Notes

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