Disclaimer : All characters belong to Rick Riordian

Everything was great. Camp half-blood was almost empty at this time of year since most of the demigods had gone home to their mortal parents, but only those who had mortal parents. Frank and Hazel went to New Rome. Annabeth had decided to not go back to her dads. Percy had gone back to his mums and Annabeth spent her time between there and Camp. Piper stayed at Camp, Leo and Jason had no choice. They didn't have a mortal parent anymore. Nico didn't have a mortal parent either but he went back to the underworld, to his Father. He was the only demigod who even barely knew his godly parent, let alone lives with him. Nico felt as if he didn't belong anywhere else but hell though, which was sad.

One day Nico came back to Camp. He said that Persephone had come back for the winter and she was annoying him. He claimed he had nowhere else to go, Jason could believe that. He slept alone in the Hades Cabin and he ate alone at the Hades table. Cabin 13, table 13. Mind, Jason slept alone in Cabin 1 and Percy (when he came back) slept alone in Cabin 3, they ate alone too.

Cabin 13 was next to Cabin 1 for some reason. They went in like a ring. Jason would often hear sobs and screams from Cabin 13, gut wrenching screams that only came with the worst of nightmares. The first few nights he tried to ignore it but the fifth night was too much. The poor boy just needed a friend. He heard the first scream and then the muffled sobs which brought more screams. It broke Jason's heart.

So there, in the middle of the night, Jason got up and put a shirt on. He went over to Nico's cabin. He was in the middle bunk, tossing and turning and sobbing and screaming. How do you help someone as broken as this boy? Jason thought. Percy once said to Jason that he thought something inside Nico di Angelo had broken permentantly, and that the boy could not be fixed. Jason would try his best though.

He went and he sat at the end of the bunk. Suddenly Nico screamed and sat up his eyes flying open. He gasped and stared breathing heavily then he started sobbing. Jason moved closer and wrapped his arms around him. 'It'll be okay.' He said. Nico just sobbed into his shirt.

'Why do you care about me?' Nico croaked after a while.

'Because I can see you're not okay, and you need someone to be there for you.'

'No I don't.'

'Yes you do.'

'I don't'

'You know, Hazel said your fatal flaw was holding grudges, but I think it's thinking you can do it alone, when you can't.'

'The things I've seen. The places I've been, they are not things you can forget and they are not things that should be shared.'

'I'm not asking you to forget them or to share them. I'm asking you to accept a little help every once in a while.' Jason said desperately. 'The others still don't know do they?' he asked.

'No, and why should they? I don't belong already and telling them that will just give everyone another reason to hate me and cast me aside.' Nico said with as much venom in his tone as he could muster. He had stopped crying but the remnants of tears were still streaked down his cheeks and his eyes were red rimmed. His hair was a messy black mop and his dark brown eyes looked extremely sad, there was something else in them too, maybe the knowledge that he came from another era, maybe that he had seen so much more than everyone else or maybe that he knew so much more.

Nico was excellent at hiding everything from his emotions to information. He had known about the two camps long before anyone else, he had known about the great prophecy first too. His father told him everything, but these secrets had cast him into Tartarus, alone. Nico knew how to play the game of sides excellently, possibly better than the gods themselves. He called all the gods their correct names according to wherever he was, at Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood. He knew what to tell people and how to make them believe him. When Percy had gone missing he had told Annabeth he was searching for him. When he came across him, he did nothing about it, because he knew that it was too early to reveal the secrets about the two camps. Nico was a master at the game of being on both sides at the same time. Jason wondered if this had took a toll on him because even though he could play on both sides, he didn't and wouldn't trust anyone. He didn't even trust Percy, much less Jason. He possibly trusted Hazel but who knew?

'You do belong here. You do have a home here and people don't hate you. If you told them they would not start hating you, they would not cast you aside; they would accept you for who you really are. The reason people don't accept you now is because they don't know who you are.' Jason exhaled. He paused for a moment and when Nico said nothing he laughed. 'You're too mysterious, with your big jacket and your messy hair and your scary sword.'

'Really, I'm mysterious?' Nico asked.

'Well I don't know much about you.' Jason said. 'If people got to know you better, they wouldn't be as scared of you.'

'I'm scary?'

'Real scary' Jason smiled. 'The scariest demigod I've ever met.'

'Really?' Nico smiled.

'Yep. Scarier that Percy or Octavian or gods, even scarier that Clarisse and man she's scary.'

Nico really smiled then with a grin that lit up his whole face. Jason carried on talking. 'You would have like 9000 attack power in mythomagic.'

'No way'

'Yes way.' Talking to Nico like this, making him smile was really fun. Jason saw another side of Nico, a side that wanted to be loved. He had let his defences come down, for Jason. Jason smiled to himself.

'Why are you grinning like a big idiot?' Nico asked.

'Because I made you smile.'

Nico laughed then and it was one of the most amazing sounds Jason had ever heard. 'It's not that hard really.' He giggled.

'Yes it is.'

'Not.'

'Not at 2AM in the morning' Jason laughed.

Nico laughed aswell. They carried on talking and eventually Nico fell asleep. Jason sat on the next bunk all night and Nico didn't wake up screaming again. He looked so innocent and peaceful when he slept.

R & R Welcome :)