Nico di Angelo is the (angelsbreath) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-11-18 01:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | nico di angelo, thalia grace |
WHO: Nico and Thalia
WHAT: Family lunch!
WHEN: Recently
WARNINGS: None!
STATUS: Closed and Complete
It was weird to think that she now had not only one cousin, but two. Thalia had spent most of her life feeling like she had no family: her father didn’t recognize her as his - not formally, anyway - and her mother was too self-centred to be anyone’s family. The only family she’d had, really, was Luke, and then Annabeth.
But now, she had two cousins. And as awkward as it was, she wanted to get to know them, beyond what had happened to them in dreams.
“So,” she said, poking at her ramen, “What are you up to these days?”
***
Nico had never really done anything with anyone on his dad’s side of the family but he’d always been a little curious about his uncle. Well - uncles now that they knew about his dad’s other brother. He and Percy got along pretty well and he was optimistic about things with Thalia. He hadn’t hated hanging out with her when Percy got everybody together for his birthday but then Nico had also been on his best behavior because he was kind of terrified of disappointing or upsetting Sally Jackson. It was weird how much her opinion mattered to him after only knowing her for a little while.
He gave Thalia a half smile at her question. “School mostly. Getting over the...adventure from halloween. What about you?”
***
“I’m down to one class,” Thalia admitted, poking at her noodles. “Which is going to set back my degree even longer, but it’s kind of hard to concentrate on vampirism as a metaphor for homosexuality in 1960s exploitation literature when my dreams are going crazy, you know?”
More accurately, Luke’s dreams were going crazy. Hers were just fine, for the moment. All she had to do was run around hunting monsters with Artemis. Peaceful, though tinged with sadness.
***
Nico almost choked on his noodles at her comment as he stared at her for a minute before grabbing his water and drinking almost half the glass. “Vampirism as a metaphor for...and suddenly I’ve never been more glad to have decided against a major that called for Lit classes. I don’t think I could read that and ever take it seriously. Will would have to ban the book from our room because I’d keep waking him up to share passages.”
“I think I’ve been keeping myself too busy to dream since the Temples a couple of months ago. Not sleeping any more than I have too. I’ve seen people posting about their dreams repeating and I can’t see my mom’s death again.” He admitted quietly.
***
Thalia waved her hand vaguely. “Pop culture,” she corrected. Lit was too much work; pop culture she could handle, because she’d been born into that stuff. Well, maybe not the metaphors and the vampirism.
At his next words, she sobered as well. Nico didn’t really talk much about his mom’s side of the family - or about his family at all - but she could see how deeply he felt his mother’s loss. “That’s not really a solution either,” she said, more gently than anyone would expect the brash young starlet to be capable of. “I tried that once, and sleep deprivation set in and I started hallucinating.”
***
“Yeah...I’ll stick to my interior design classes. Worst thing I have to worry about learning in there is the different shades of red or whatever is the in color of the season.” Nico said with a shrug. He didn’t get what the difference was between most of them and he was studying them.
“That’s what Will keeps telling me but...Do you remember when those mercenaries or whatever and the temples showed up a couple months ago? I got pulled into one and it was testing me. I saw my mom’s ghost - the way she looked in the last Dream I had of her and she was...blaming me for her death. Me and Bianca. Because Father saved us and not her.” That had been when he’d really gone out of his way to find ways to cut back on how much he had to sleep.
***
“Oh gods,” Thalia breathed. She knew first hand how crippling the guilt could be, especially when you already felt awful about it yourself. She didn’t blame Nico for not wanting to go back there every night, but not sleeping wasn’t a solution either.
She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Nico. I wish I knew some way to stop the dreams, but no one seems to have cracked it yet.”
***
That was one of the things Nico appreciated most about his cousins - even though he hadn’t known either of them for very long he didn’t have to pretend to be okay when he really wasn’t. He didn’t have to put on that act for anyone in his life anymore and it was freeing in a way. “I keep hoping Sans or one of the other science types will have a break through on that but no luck so far. I haven’t told Will what happened in the Temple yet. He knows that I dreamed about her death but I didn’t tell him about seeing her ghost that way.” He didn’t want his boyfriend having to add that worry onto the stack of others he had - seeing ghosts wasn’t exactly normal even here in Orange County. And he wasn’t anywhere near ready to tell Thalia that her dad was responsible for his mom’s death in the Dreams.
***
Thalia nodded. She and Luke generally tried to be transparent with each other, especially when misunderstandings and miscommunication had kept them apart for so long, but she understood why Nico wouldn’t want to bring Will down. Still, dealing with the guilt of a parent’s death wasn’t something anyone should have to go through on their own.
“Let me know if you ever want to talk about anything,” she said. “Or if you just want to hit things. I’m good at that.”
***
“I’ll keep that in mind. And you have my cell right? In case you ever want to talk about things.” Nico grinned at her. “Does it help? Hitting things? When parents or whatever just get to be too much?” He asked, taking another bite of his food while waiting for her response. He wasn’t going to be able to eat all of it right now but he figured that was one of the reasons he had a fridge and a microwave at home - leftovers.
***
“Sure beats curling up in a ball and quivering,” Thalia said with shrug. She formed some food into her mouth as well.
“Eating,” she added, before she’d fully swallowed. “Eating helps too.”
She smiled at him, accepting his offer. “Yeah, I got your number. I’ll definitely call if I need anything.”
They might be at different places in their dreams, but they were all in it together.
***
“Hey! I haven’t been curled up in a ball and quivering! I’ve been watching a lot of movies that were directed by anybody but my dad and surfing the internet looking for gift ideas,” Nico said pretending to be upset at her accusation but it was a fair one. He’d been tempted to do that. And okay yes sometimes the movie watching happened curled up on the couch almost in a ball with Cesare by him.
“That’s something I’m trying to do but I’ve never had much of an appetite. Even before moving here and the Dreams starting.” He’d learned the art of several mini meals throughout the day to make up for not being able to eat a lot at any one time.
“I’ll do the same. Percy will probably appreciate me texting someone else in the middle of the night when the Dreams throw something at me I can’t handle. At least now and then. Plus - we’re family right?”
***
Family. The word filled her with unexpected warmth. Thalia had always thought that she didn’t need family, that she’d be fine on her own, but that was just because she’d never really had a good family. Now she was finding she had a bigger one than expected, and it wasn’t too bad.
“Yeah.” She smiled warmly at him. “We’re family.”