WHO: Nico di Angelo and Nico Minoru WHAT: The Goth Nicos meet WHEN: Tonight WHERE: McDonalds WARNINGS: Talk of death STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
Nico wasn’t sure how he felt about leaving his cave. It made him feel a little uncomfortable and he didn’t particularly like the idea of living with other people, even if they were demigods. He’d left Camp Halfblood for that reason, but he hadn’t really had a choice here. It wasn’t like he could escape into the Underworld like he could back home.
Still, that didn’t mean he had to stay there all the time.
Unfortunately, tonight he had homework, so he ended up at McDonalds with a cheeseburger meal as he tried to work on his math. He was dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt. Around his waist was a silver studded belt from which hung a sword that was blacker than anything he wore, and seemed to suck in light with it. All around him seemed an aura of gloom and death that he was doing nothing to create, but that kept most people away from him.
He picked up a french fry and ate it, looking annoyed as he erased one of the math problems and started over again.
***
Nico didn't have fast food often, but once in awhile, she had a craving for McDonald's fries. Nothing else would do in cases such as this one. Sure, she had issues she had yet to really deal with, but today's cure was a chocolate shake and fries. Maybe a burger. As distractions went, this was a pretty damn good tasting one.
She ordered her food and took a seat at a table near someone she recognized from around town. Others might have kept away from him because of that aura, but Nico was drawn to it. Perhaps because she too had a sort of darkness that was part of her. Or maybe it was because she was dressed similarly. She differed in that she left her weapon back at her apartment. Never mind that she could summon it anytime she wanted.
"Math is the worst," she said from her table. She knew that look of frustration because she had a similar one whenever math was involved.
***
Nico was surprised to have been addressed, and it took him a minute to realize that she was speaking with him. He looked over at her, frowning a little, then back at his math book.
“Yeah, it sucks,” he said evenly. He couldn’t disagree with that comment, after all, so there was nothing nasty to say back to her. Math was terrible. And he’d never really officially had math past 4th grade, so this high school stuff was making his head explode.
When he looked at her, he realized that she kind of looked like him. She wasn’t a daughter of Hades - she didn’t have that Aura, but she didn’t look as annoying as most kids.
“I’m Nico.”
***
Nico smiled a little when she heard what his name was. “I’m also Nico.”
It was about the time the two had met, she decided. They had quite a bit in common. The shared name was just a bonus thing.
She wasn’t a daughter of Hades, no, but she could open portals to dark dimensions if she wanted to. Not that she did. She’d only done so to save a friend trapped there. But she did have that kind of power now, and it scared her sometimes.
***
That was weird. He supposed a girl could be named Nico, there was no rule against it, but he’d always thought of it as a boy’s name. Oh well. It didn’t matter. It was kind of cool to find someone else with his name, really.
“Nice outfit,” he said simply. He liked the way she dressed. He kind of dressed that way too but he wasn’t really goth, was he? Since he really did have control over the dead? Did it actually work that way?
“Are you a demigod?”
***
"Thanks," Nico replied, smiling slightly at the compliment. Most people don't tell her that. She figured most people were more comfortable ignoring her goth look, so they didn't say anything at all about it. It was kind of nice to have that in common with someone else in this place. "I like yours, too."
"Guess we have more than a name in common," she added. But not everything.
"I'm not a demigod, though." She didn't even blink at the question. She had seen a lot of weird things in her life, both here and at home. "I'm a witch. Or wizard. Whatever you want to call it."
There was magic involved, either way.
***
“Oh,” he said. “Okay.” Nico wasn’t unfamiliar with magic, after all, his half-sister was a witch of sorts. And in his world you stopped considering anything weird for very long.
“My dad’s Hades,” he said. “The Greek god of the Underworld.” He wasn’t bragging by any means. As much as it might have sounded cool to have a god for a parent, it really kind of sucked. They were never around, didn’t really care about you, and constantly sent you and those you cared about away on horrible quests where you could easily die.
“Are you good at it? The magic, I mean?”
***
“Hades? Huh, and I thought my mom was a lot,” Nico said, thinking about the last time she saw her mother. They had both been on the same side for the first time in awhile. They were both grieving over the loss of her father. Nico still hadn’t quite dealt with that.
“I’m a lot better at it,” she said honestly. “I have a lot more control, but I probably still need to work on that.”
Recent events made her realize it was always going to be a part of her. It was how she used it that mattered. She never let it consume her, and she always used it for good.
***
“I’ve had to work on mine a lot too. After my sister died, I just went into the Underworld and started learning. The guy who was teaching me turned out to be evil but he still taught me a lot. I think I’m pretty good at it now.” He paused. “The necromancy, I mean. That’s what I can do. Raise the dead and control ghosts and stuff.”
It probably sounded pretty creepy to most people, but not to Nico. He was used to it, and it was just another fact of life.
***
Nico grimaced when he mentioned the death of his sister. That was, sadly, another thing they had in common. She had also learned a bit from someone evil, but she ended that as soon as she realized the truth about Morgan. The loss of a sister had much more of an impact on her.
“I lost a sister, too,” she said quietly, her tone sympathetic and understanding. It was a terrible thing to have an understanding of.
“I’m sorry you had to go through something like that.” She did wonder if he wanted to bring his sister back...or if he had.
***
“I tried to bring her back,” he said. He couldn’t read thoughts, but thinking of his ability to raise the dead his sister’s death all headed in that direction. “She didn’t want to come back. She was at peace. And then she was gone. Chose to be reborn.”
There was deep, deep sadness in his words. That had been as much a betrayal to him as her death had been.
“But I did bring back my half-sister. So that’s something.”
***
“If I could have brought my sister back, I would have.” She said it without judgment. She knew many people would balk at the idea of messing with life and death like that. She did not. She wouldn’t tell him he was wrong to have done it, no matter which sister.
Maybe it was naive of her to think that way, but she was who she was: a moody teenager.
She popped another fry into her mouth, the last one. “Anyway, I need to get home. We should talk more often.”
She liked that there was someone she could really relate to around here.
***
“Yeah,” said Nico, rather surprised that he actually felt that way. He was happy to have someone else who understood him a little, someone who maybe wasn’t exactly like him, but was at least a little like him. It was nice.
“I’d like that.”
Then he turned back to his food, feeling rather happy with himself. He’d have to tell Leo that he made a friend.