Chapter Two

I reached the infirmary quicker than I thought I would. It was slow, only a few of the beds occupied when I walked in. One of Will's siblings who I didn't recognise was bent over a younger camper with dark skin and dreadlocks, muttering about blunting training swords.

"Hey," I said "do you know if Will's in right now?" They jumped, spinning around to face me. "Uh, who're you?" They asked, confused eyes sweeping me, probably checking for life-threatening injuries. I smiled.

"I'm Nico," I told them, and their eyes widened briefly before their mouth curved up in a smile. "Just wait here," they said, holding out a hand to demonstrate. "He's in the back, I'll go get him."

They rushed off, and I stood, slightly awkward, in the middle of the infirmary, trying not to look any of the other campers in the eye. A few seconds later, Will came hurrying around the corner, slightly out of breath, his sibling following a few steps behind him, smirking.

"Nico!" Will said, smiling. "You're back! It's been so long!" He came up and hugged me gently, having to lean down a little, as he was about a head taller than me now. I blinked in surprise before curving my arms over his back, just as gently.

"Yeah, I am. Maybe for good this time," Will pulled back in surprise.

"That's great news! Everything went well with your dad, then?" I nodded, smiling. He smiled back. Then his expression shifted to one of concern, very suddenly, and he stepped back to look me up and down frantically. "Are you injured? Why are you here?"

I laughed. "No, no, I'm fine. I just wanted to stop by." I hesitated for a second. "But I may also be injured." Will sighed heavily, rolling his eyes but smiling all the same. "I knew it. You only ever come in here when you're hurt."

"It's literally the infirmary, Will." He waved my statement away.

"That's not relevant. Let me get my stuff, and we can go back to your cabin?" I nodded, grateful and surprised that he had remembered how much I hated being treated in the infirmary. I always felt like I was on display.

Will disappeared into the back rooms, emerging with a cloth first-aid bag in his hands. I followed him out of the building, and let him lead the way to my cabin.

"You've changed," he said after a few moments. I shrugged. "Well, it has been a while. You've changed too." I looked closer at him. "Actually, no, you haven't. You're just taller now." He laughed.

"You look good, though," he hummed. "Happier." I didn't reply, not really knowing what to say. That was an odd thing to notice about someone.

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We reached my cabin, and I pushed the door open, closing it after Will. I walked over to my bed and sat before I noticed he hadn't followed. He had stayed by the door, watching as I made my way across the room.

"Is it your leg?" He asked. "You're limping." I blinked in surprise, nodding. "Yeah, actually. My ankle." He nodded, coming to kneel at the edge of the bed where I had stretched my right leg out. I used my other foot to toe my shoe off. I wasn't wearing a sock, but rather my foot and ankle were wrapped thickly with white bandage stained reddish in some places.

Will gently rolled my pant leg up, chewing on his lip. He prodded carefully at my ankle, and I hissed when he pushed on a sore spot. He hummed in the back of his throat, reaching for his medical kit. "So, tell me about the last while. Obviously you've been around a bit?"

He was using a tactic whenever he had to treat something he thought would be particularly gruesome or painful, to distract the patient. But he also sounded like he genuinely wanted to know. I sighed, humming.

"Where to start? I guess, it's easier to say where I haven't been." I watched as Will pulled on a pair of gloves and started unwinding the bandage around my ankle. I tipped my head back to look at the ceiling. "I jumped around a lot. I guess it would've been easier to start in one place and work my way on, but whatever." I winced as Will tugged on a part of the bandage that was stuck to my skin with blood.

"Where was your favourite place to go?" He asked, carefully working the cloth free. "Italy," I said without hesitation. "It was really nice to see it again. A lot has changed since I was a kid." Will nodded, smiling a little.

"I bet."

I rolled my eyes, watching as he pulled the last of the bandage away, revealing the raw, split skin that wrapped around the bottom of my ankle and the puffy, bruised state of the ankle itself.

"What the Hades did you do?" He asked, peering closer at the injury, which was slowly oozing blood again. I shrugged.

"It's a long story."

"Well, start talking. I'm gonna have to stitch this." I sighed.

"I was in Mississippi, about three days ago. I was chasing the ghost of a particularly vengeful slave trader. I had tracked him to this old abandoned shack of a house along a river bank. Unfortunately, he had travelled to the Underworld with his whip." I winced as Will began to stitch, tugging the raw edges of my skin closed.

"He still had it, and just as I was catching up to him, he lashed out with it. It wrapped around my ankle, and then I... I fell down the river bank. Which was very steep. And rocky. But I got him in the end." Will laughed, tugging on the thread.

"Only you, Nico. Only you."

"Oh yeah? How many times has Percy gotten injured in stupid ways? How many times has Calypso burnt herself on her boyfriend? How many–"

"Jeez, I get it, alright alright." He laughed.

Will finished with the stitches, carefully re-wrapping the injury in clean bandage. He stood up, peeling his gloves off.

"Alright, it looks like a bad sprain. I have this new walking cast prototype I've been working on, and I have one back in my office. I'm gonna pop out and get it, you can get cleaned up and changed while I'm gone."

After he had left, closing the door behind him, I stood and carefully made my way to the large bathroom. It held a shower stall, a bath sunk into the floor, an ornate sink and another large mirror. The room was white, with onyx and silver accents, as opposed to the main cabin, which was the opposite way around, black with white and silver accents.

The only colour came from the photos hung above my bed, and the clothes I had left in the closet. I kind of wished the place wasn't so dark, whoever had designed cabin 13 obviously had some pretty stereotypical ideas about how children of Hades live.

The shower was refreshing. I changed into a pair of dark grey sweats when I got out, walking out of the bathroom scrubbing a towel through my hair, drying it as much as I could.

Will was sitting on my bed, bent over something made of some kind of light-grey material. He straightened up when I walked in, holding up the contraption, which I could now see was an ankle brace, made of steel-grey fabric and plastic-y looking supports.

"Hey, you were in the shower when I got back so–" he stopped speaking suddenly, noticing I wasn't wearing a shirt. A light pink blush spread over his cheeks, matching mine. He stared for a few seconds, until he jumped up.

"You never said you got tattoos!" He came close, examining the aforementioned ink. I laughed a little.

"Never came up," I said as he walked a full circle around me. My right arm had a full sleeve of ink, from my shoulder down to my wrist. It was entirely made up of purple oleander, the colours so muted it might not have had any colour at all.

A silver arrow wrapped around my right wrist, above my SPQR tattoo. (Reyna had appointed me the unofficial camp mediator). The fletching and arrowhead met at the inside of my wrist, just below the heel of my hand. The shaft had Bianca's name tattooed above it in cursive, a sort of tribute.

There were two lines of text below my collarbone, one above the other. They were black, and inked in a sort of spiky typewriter-esque font. The top line was in Latin, and read 'Volabo in alis mea', and the line beneath, written in ancient Greek, read 'αλλά δεν πετάω μόνος μου'. Together, the two lines read 'I fly on my own wings, but I do not fly alone'.

My back was covered in black ink. A large tattoo, depicting a folded pair of feathered wings that began at my shoulders and ended just above my hips, covered the skin. A skull with a halo nestled between them. That tattoo was my favourite, for more than just aesthetic reasons.

I had a red depiction of a pomegranate on the back of my left calf, leaking juice and seeds down to my ankle, done in a traditional water-colour Chinese style, and my uninjured ankle had lines of silver text wrapping around it, all in Italian. But those ones were covered right now.

Will whistled softly, trailing a hand down one of my shoulder blades, making me shiver. "These are pretty cool. You did have them done professionally, right? In a medically approved facility?"

"Yes, mom," I laughed. "Don't worry, it was all very sanitary."

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Will's new ankle brace was deceptively quick to put on. It was small, roughly the size of a regular winter boot, made of sturdy grey material. It was flexible but strong, and fastened with Velcro straps and those little metal snaps. It felt light, and didn't completely immobilise my ankle. I didn't doubt that I would be able to at least hold my own in a fight while wearing this thing.

I told Will as much, and he practically literally glowed with the praise. The dinner bell rang just then, so he helped me to my feet, and I was able to walk without too much trouble. I was hardly limping anymore.

After I had thrown on a fresh long-sleeve and tied my hair up again, the two of us began the walk across camp to the hall.

"Have you seen anyone else yet?" Will asked as we made our way to the mess hall. "I know Percy misses you. Well, everyone does, but Percy's been the most vocal about it."

I smiled a little. That definitely sounded like Percy. He and Annabeth would've started their first year at uni in camp Jupiter not too long ago. I shook my head. "Nah, I don't think they even know I'm back yet,"

Will laughed. "Hazel's gonna be so mad you didn't tell her."

"Wait, she's here?"

"Yeah, she and Frank arrived yesterday. Percy and Annabeth have the next few days off of school, so they all came here for a while. Reyna's held up, but she plans to come down tomorrow. I guess you arrived at the right time, Death Boy. The gang's all together."

I smiled, too happy to even bother snapping at Will for the stupid nickname. I guess I did have pretty good timing.

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The hall was already crowded when we arrived, and I could see that the Poseidon table was pretty busy, seating Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Leo, and Calypso. I noticed a lot of the other kids mixing tables too.

"So does Chiron just not give a fuck about where anyone sits anymore?" I asked Will and we made our way to Percy's table. He shrugged in response.

"Not really. I mean, he can't really stop them. And Calypso doesn't even have a table. The Hephaestus kids had to build her her own little cabin 'cause Chiron didn't want her sleeping with Leo. I believe his exact words were 'There'll be no hanky-panky in my camp grounds'."

I laughed, covering it with my sleeve. I really had missed this place.

"Hey!" Will said loudly once we came within earshot of the table. "Look who I found!" Hazel was the first one to notice me, and she leapt out of her chair, tackling me in a hug, which I immediately returned. "You jerk! How long have you been back? I missed you!" I buried my face in Hazel's hair, smiling. I had seen her a few times over the last few years, never for long enough though.

"I just got back a little while ago. I had to see Will first," I gestured at my ankle before she could make That Face at me. She did anyway.

I was swarmed with questions as soon as I sat down. Everyone wanted to know everything. It had been forever since we had all been together. It wasn't until Annabeth asked if I had any photos that I remembered I had brought gifts for everyone.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, jumping up, startling Jason, who was beside me. "I almost forgot, I have something for you guys! I'll be right back," I rushed off back to cabin 13, where I had left the trinkets in my bag. As I ran off, I heard one of the girls say "should he be running on that ankle?" 

hey so uh. bare with me guys, but TOA never happened, okay? Thanks 

Fun Fact: Los Angeles' full name is 'El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula'