Dead in Love (Nico x Reader)

The comeback no one expected

  Wind tore through my ponytail. I was vaguely surprised it was strong enough to do that, what with all the monster gore, sweat, and other undisclosed substances that had caused my hair to become as dirty as it was. But then again, I was sitting on top of a building on the Upper East Side. Zeus was probably upset about something, and I'd spent a large part of the last week underground. Maybe my understanding of wind had diminished during that time.

  My feet dangled over the edge as I tilted my face up to the sun. Helios definitely cringed at the sight of my face. Cars honked 10 stories, give or take, below. My quest partner and my Pegasi snorted and ruffled their feathers somewhere on the rooftop behind. They were my charges for the time being. He'd gone off to do something I'd instantly forgotten. My brain had been on overdrive for days and had conveniently given in today, a few hours after completing our quest. Some goddess' favorite socks, whatever, whatever, stolen by an ancient monster, blah blah blah, the usual wild goose chase. I'd imagined that being the Camp Half-Blood veteran I was I'd be given the cooler, more complicated quests that came about every other year. But no, the gods knew I was tried and true so they demanded I do all the menial low-ball quests.

  I arched my back, my hands pressed at the base of my spine and felt the satisfying crack. That's how you know you've spent too much time on Pegasus back.

  "Hear that, Rainy," I called over my shoulder to my ride, "Your  back is killing my back."

  She whinnied back as if to say "ya well your big back is killing my back, you could lay off the ambrosia."

  I laughed to myself, "Ya, ya, I hear you, Rainbow."

  "What are we hearing from Rainbow?" My quest partner's voice came from also behind my shoulder.

  "Oh, hey, Nico," I didn't bother turning my face from the sun. Then I could play the rosiness of my cheeks off as sun kissed and not blushing. "How long have you been eavesdropping on me and Rainy's conversation?"

  "Not long, I swear," He said.

  "Didn't anyone ever teach you that's impolite?" I tsked.

  "Hades wasn't too concerned with manners," He chuckled.

  I spared him a glance. He somehow still looked good covered in the same unknown fluids as me. It spiked his dark hair up in a way that boarded on silly and hot. Ah the duality of man. That's why I liked him. My will-they-won't-they buddy. We'd kissed once, in the heat of some moment I could hardly recall the details of.  The ending had made the journey to get there some kind of jumbled mystery, possibly aided by wine fermented under someone's bunk in the heat of summer.

  We'd spent six months dancing around each other.

   Training sessions for new campers lead by both of us ending in mutual awkwardness because he brushed my hand reaching for a training sword. Him evacuating the beach when I arrived in my shorts, that were admittedly a little shorter, and bikini top to canoe. Me unable to maintain eye contact post a very sweaty sparring match. Both of us blatantly ignoring the tension pulled taught between us when Chiron informed us of our mutual quest assignment. Most people who knew us both had also felt the tension and had been incessantly teasing us, some more subtle with it than other.

  The quest itself had gone to plan. The socks (graphic t-shirt? Maybe it was a hair tie?) had be retrieved and returned to its rightful owner. The goddess had only been mostly ungrateful and dismissed us after tolerating about 5 minutes of our presence. There had been one chilly night that had forced us to shared a sleeping mat and blankets so I didn't shiver to death. None of the hypothermia skin-to-skin survival tip, but what he'd said to me when he thought I'd been sleeping might have been more vulnerable than if we had been.