Hazel Levesque (witchgirl) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-08-29 00:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | hazel levesque, nico di angelo |
Who: Nico di Angelo and Hazel Levesque
What: Nico has a confession
When: about a week ago, give or take
Where: Nico and Will's apartment
Rating/Warning: G/tugged heartstrings
Status: finished
Nico knew he’d put this off way too long and now he didn’t know how to bring it up in a way that didn’t sound completely dickish. Hey guess what? I know who your dad is. And that’s totally why I reached out to you to begin with. You’re my half-sister. Surprise. He snorted at his own thoughts. This could potentially go really really shitty. Or actually probably would. But she couldn’t yell too loudly with adorable dogs around right? And Ziggy still had his puppy adorableness working hard in his favor. He just needed to...rip this bandage off and get it over with because it wasn’t going to get any easier the longer he put it off. He’d ordered pizza for them and asked Will to go pick it up for them so that he could talk to his sister alone before springing the whole family on her.
He took a deep breath as he buzzed her in, opening the door before she could even knock on it. “Hey. I ordered pizza for us. Will went to pick it up.”
***
Hazel smiled at Nico as he opened the door and held out the package of cream horns she had picked up at the store. “I brought dessert. It’s the least I could do, since you two keep feeding me.” she joked lightly. Honestly, though, she was grateful that she had them. She would have been in for so many lonely meals this summer otherwise, and she was glad she had friends here. She still had her mom when she was traveling around for her show, as lonely as that was. Summer on campus, she wasn’t going to have anyone.
“What are our plans today, after pizza? As long as no one suggests monopoly.”
****
“We like having you here. It makes me behave and not start cussing in Italian or demanding chicken nuggets every night. Which I’m still not convinced isn’t a balanced diet but, Will says it’s not and he is pre-med...” Nico said closing the door behind her before Cesare could go darting out. “And this guy is convinced that I have hidden his hot dogs from him,” he said picking up the little greyhound and setting him down facing into the apartment as he gave him the command to go lay down.
“I haven’t planned anything actually. I was hoping you and I could talk before dinner though.”
***
Hazel laughed at that and shook her head. “You can’t be that bad when it’s just the two of you, can you?” She reached out with her free hand, holding it out for the tiny dog to sniff of. “Poor Cesare. Are your Dads not letting you eat?” she asked him before she moved to scritch at his ear.
She looked back up and Nico, her head cocked to the side. “Is everything okay?” she asked.
****
Nico gave her a quick, rare smile. “I like to keep him on his toes. And when we’re watching movies - am I really not supposed to get upset at the characters doing stupid things?” He joked. “Don’t believe him and Ziggy about not being allowed to eat. If we let them they’d eat everything in the kitchen and still want more.”
He swallowed, his smile fading as he looked at her. “I...I haven’t been completely honest with you Hazel. I knew who you were before I first contacted you over the Network.”
***
“I’m pretty sure you are supposed to yell at the characters doing stupid things. How else are they going to learn? Nevermind they never listen…” Hazel joked lightly. “I hate to tell them I told you so, but. Well. We told them so.” She put the pack of cream horns down on the coffee table and continued to pet the greyhound, scratching at his chin as he ate up the attention. “I don’t believe it, such a tiny dog. How would it be able to fit?” she asked, looking at Cesare, before turning back to Nico. “Your vet probably would agree with you, though.”
Confusion washed over Hazel’s face. How could he have known her before the network? She had moved from city to city with her mom most of her teenage years, and before that, she lived in New Orleans while her friend lived in Italy. “I don’t understand. Unless you just meant from school, but you’re ahead of me.” Even if they were both in the art programs, they didn’t share any classes together.
***
“He’s a tiny ball of energy. Don’t let his dignified appearance fool you Hazel. He runs circles around Ziggy, Will and me when we go to the dog park.” Nico told her with a laugh as Ziggy came barrelling into the living room and tried to jump on Hazel for attention. “I think someone heard you and wants some love too.” He said, grabbing onto the golden retrievers harness and holding him back so that he couldn’t knock her to the floor. “Calm down Ziggy,” he whispered to him in Italian. He hadn’t trained him to answer commands in Italian the way he had Cesare but it seemed like the sound of the language calmed the blonde puppy.
“Not...not from school.” He said, his voice choking a bit. “I knew who you were because of my dad. Because of Hades. He...he knew your mom. Before her reality show.”
***
Hazel turned her attention over to the golden retriever for a moment, rubbing at his ears , grinning as he wagged his tail. “You don’t like being left out, do you?” she asked the puppy. “Didn’t mean to leave you out. Good boy.”
She looked back up at Nico, still quite confused. “I mean, I know she was in a few of his movies, before I was born.” Which… honestly Hazel thinks it was an excuse to bow out gracefully. She had a kid to take care of and wanted time away from acting had to be less of an embarrassing reason to admit to than she just… was not that great of an actress. “Did we meet when we were kids or something?”
****
“It's something he shares with his brother I think. Neither of them like being left out of things.” Nico said, scratching at Ziggy’s neck lightly. “No pizza though. The crust gives him bad breath.”
Nico swallowed, looking her in the eye. “No. We didn't meet when we were kids. Dad never told me about you until we moved here. I think it was his way of starting over with me. Telling me the truth about what his past had been when he'd come to work in the states.”
***
“If we didn’t meet when we were kids, I really don’t understand how you knew me before … we met..” The timing suddenly clicked in Hazel’s head. She knew her mother wasn’t in any of his movies when she was little. She’d told her many times she “gave up acting” to take care of her, before doing reality tv and then ghost hunting. The last movies she did were directed by Nico’s dad….
“What… What did he tell you?” Hazel asked, although she was sure she already knew the answer. Her mother had never told her anything about her father. Hell, sometimes she figured her mother didn’t know either, that she had just decided she wanted a kid and used a donor. Apparently that wasn’t the case.
****
Nico saw it the moment the timing clicked for her and he gave her an almost apologetic smile as he got ready to answer her. “Dad told me that...he’d had an affair when he was in the US shooting before. Nothing shocking there. I knew before we moved that he hadn’t always been faithful to my mom.” He paused, swallowing hard. “He’d had an affair with one of the actresses - Marie Levesque - and she’d gotten pregnant. He didn’t find out until after he came back to Italy but he’d always tried to help out however she’d let him. And that no matter how many times he came over to work, how many times he reached out and asked - she’d never let him meet their daughter.”
***
Hazel felt like the wind had been knocked out of her and she sat down on the couch. She… had always wondered what her dad was like, if she even had one or if it had been an anonymous donor. So she should feel thrilled to know she had more family. To know her family. But… why did he keep this from her for so long? It hurt.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked in a whisper. “Mom… Mom always told me it didn’t matter about my Dad’s side. Whenever I asked her. I ...always wanted to know.”
***
Nico felt something in him twist painfully as he watched her react to what he’d told her. About their dad. About knowing the whole time that she was his sister and he pushed his hair back from his face, almost as if he was fidgeting. “I didn’t think you’d believe me when we first met. I wouldn’t have believed some stranger telling me they were my brother.” Nico told her, forcing himself to stand still and look at her.
“And the longer I went without telling you...the harder it got for me to figure out how to tell you and I...I didn’t want you to start hating me for keeping it a secret for so long.”
***
“So… you didn’t want me to be mad for keeping a secret so long, so you decided to keep it a secret even longer?” Hazel asked quietly. She kept her eyes on the golden retriever in front of her. It was hard processing this. Mostly she just… hurt. She didn’t really have many friends until she moved here for college, and Nico was probably her closest friend. It hurt he kept something this huge from her.
“I probably wouldn’t have believed it at first. I agree. But… as we got to know each other better, ...why didn’t you tell me then?”
****
“I just...wasn’t sure how to tell you. And the more I got to know you…. The more scared I got of how you’d react and I just...knew I had to tell you. I couldn’t put it off any longer. I couldn’t keep making excuses for it. Otherwise I knew I’d just never tell you. I’m sorry Hazel.” Nico said, his voice almost cracking as he looked down at the floor between them. He felt so guilty for having hurt her.
“I was scared you’d hate me. That you wouldn’t want to hang out anymore. My family...our family...doesn’t always have the best track record for sticking around when things are rough.”
***
Hearing Nico’s voice break that way tore and twisted at Hazel’s heart. She could tell that he was scared and hurt. And in a way, she couldn’t blame him and she felt guilty. But… she was still so hurt that he kept something so huge from her from so long. “I can’t tell you it’s okay, because it isn’t. I accept your apology, but I’m not … I need time.. I just need some time.”
***
“I get it. I...I needed some too when I found out.” Nico swallowed and forced himself to look up at her. “Take...take as long as you need. I’ll still be here. So will Will.” He told her, confident that he could promise that on his boyfriend’s behalf.
***
Hazel nodded as she got up. “Thank you. For understanding and also for telling me. I know we were supposed to do things tonight but…. I think I really need to take a raincheck and try to work out all of this in my head. I’ll pay for the pizza next time… I’m sorry Nico.”