"Did you see that shooting star tonight?

Were you dazzled by the same constellation?"

—Bright by Echosmith

Reyna knew how the world worked by now. She observed its categories and understood it had to have a system to cooperate for all of the different functions that lived and breathed inside of it. She knew of all its wonders and demons and she knew that if there were any disruption in between any of the siblings then it would disrupt everything else the world structured. She knew how cold-hearted people could be—aware of it or not. And she knew she wanted no part of it.

But being who she was, she had no choice. She was a Roman demigod in a world of Greeks, Norse, Egyptians, Demons, Angels, Wizards, Holograms, Vampires, Werewolves, and lastly but not least, the Mortals. And even in those subjects, there were sub-categories. The good and the evil; the powerful and the brave and the ugly and the worst and the undeserving and let's not forget the narcissistic ones who think they deserve more than they're getting. There were so many subjects in the world, so many things gaining and taking away that it was difficult to understand how something with a brain could hardly take it much less something completely reliant on the system of nature.

Being a Roman praetor was difficult at some intervals. Being a demigod was just as difficult. Being a person in a very filled and different world was just as difficult—maybe even more.

Reyna had seen the world live for all her days. She'd learned about what it was like before her days. She would soon discover what it would be like in the near future. Being here for so long she'd known the Earth and how it rotates and moves and holds up so many groups of different beings.

Nights much like this one were nights she strived to see, but this was a whole new sight altogether.

Reyna also knew how people worked by now. Not just the mortals, but all the other powers as well. She could understand their anger and pride because she'd studied the same thing creaking through the Roman civilization.

Knowing persons, you know what calms them; angers them; inspires them. You know how they lie and cry and laugh and walk and breathe. Reyna understood too much about this.

She understood that people needed things to respire. They needed the world to breathe because they needed its distraction. Without the world to be held in, people could not understand such things that she knows as well.

As for Reyna, she had observed her actions every second that she executed them. She interpreted her feelings, maybe hid them away for her own good as praetor role, but she knew what they were and what they meant. She calculated her thoughts.

Being a Roman praetor was difficult. Being mixed with this evolution of a series of discovering sub-worlds was even more arduous.

The night sky offered leisure for her. The great wide world offered many signs for the all the sub-worlds and Reyna took to the acceptation of this affiliate.

Some nights it seemed just moderate. Others it seemed stuffy, or angry. Others it seemed to be sad. Many more nights it seemed hurt.

But never was there a night like this where it seemed—lost. Unmoving. Staring at the stars that brilliantly lit up the dark, opaque sky, Reyna realized that the Earth was at a standstill. Or it seemed as though. It wasn't breathing. It was waiting.

Reyna frowned at it, her lips nearly turning white. It was horrible, like the air stood on top of her shoulders and squeezed her down. Not even crickets chirped around the site that was perched on the edge of a hill. All that she could hear was Coach Hedge's snoring at the campsite behind her.

There was something terribly wrong with the understanding of the Earth at the moment. Reyna knew what was wrong—Gaea was rising and putting the brain into the world that has been so used to the nature of things. And the Romans and the Greeks were colliding after hundreds of years. And people were turning against themselves. The Earth may be stepped upon more humans than others but that only meant all the other sub-worlds were beneath it all. It reacts not like a domino but an apple; if you take one from the bottom of the stack, all others tumble. If you take out two civilizations from the bottom, all the others will be dragged down with them.

She may be aware of what was wrong but she did not have any inclination as to why the Earth would seem to be moaning in grief through the sky.

"They're all dead, you know that, right?" a heavy voice said from behind her.

Reyna knew who it was before she looked over her shoulder. The ghoul. He was a ghost and even looking at him confirmed a crawling feeling. The burning light of the slowly decreasing campfire behind him and the pedestal of the large golden statue made his silhouette even more translucent.

He had his hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans and his army jacket may have looked years older but it didn't fit him that way. In fact, it seemed too big for him—or more accurately: he was too small for it. The son of Pluto was so pale, Reyna thought without the correction that he was really a son of Hades. He looked so fragile but she knew his soul was heavier. Just like her own.

Nico's words shook something in her. Maybe it was his tone of voice that gave her an eerie feeling or maybe it was just him.

She scrutinized him, keeping her frown. "Who is?"

Nico stepped forward, maneuvering around the shrubbery, and bent himself down to sit beside her. Reyna's eyes passed over his slumped-over figure, like a whole weight of the world was sitting atop his spine, and then sternly locked on his face without breaking contact.

He tilted his head up, gesturing to the sky. The illumination of the moon flickered a shadow beneath his hollow cheekbones. "The stars," he said.

In fact, Reyna observed, Nico di Angelo seemed to be hanging of shadows. Or maybe he was the living shadow.

She furrowed her eyebrow but did not say anything.

Nico continued in a nonchalant explanation, "They all blew up thousands of light-years ago. What's up there now is just the aftermath still existing."

"Hm," Reyna said so softly is was barely audible. She looked ahead and at the miles of mountain that tilted downward. "I knew that."

"Just sayin'," he mumbled as he raised a bony shoulder. He pulled down his long, black sleeves to cover his thumbs.

Reyna was very tense now, as if she had just realized that he was sitting there with her. As if she was aware that a discussion between the two was beginning to brew.

There was a long and loud silence that drifted between them. Reyna kept her eyes along the dead stars, dancing between the different graves and forgotten skulls. Nico kept his eyes in a daze.

Reyna shifted from where she sat cross-legged beneath her long and layered toga. She would not leave but she could not completely undergo this deafening silence. The discussion she had thought would stir was beginning to sizzle out.

Then Nico spoke, "Do you think we'll be like that?"

"Like what?" Reyna urged him to elaborate. Both of their tones were as nonchalant as a stone.

"We'll die but people will still see our aftermath?" Nico glanced over at her.

Reyna pondered about this, giving another long silence. "Perhaps," She concluded.

"No," Nico said, his tone retreating from its ghostly tendrils and now becoming almost angry. "Stop pretending. I know you know," He said, gesturing out his hands as he looked over at her doubtfully.

Reyna looked back at him and her eyelids slid down into a glare. She pursed her lips. "Then why ask?"

"Because I want to know your opinion from you. I don't get out much, y'know," He frowned, his jaw becoming hard. It looked as though it were to shatter even if he did not clench it that fiercely. "And I hate when people beat around the bush. Just say it."

Reyna understood what he meant. She never liked it when people held things back. She was reminded of Jason, but she was also avoiding to be reminded of Octavian—one who did not beat around the bush, but pulverized it to dust.

She took in a long sigh and sat up straighter. "I believe everyone dies. Everyone will die. And those who loved them will remember them and that is how they will still live."

"Not the gods," Nico replied bitterly.

Reyna shook her head. "The gods cannot physically die. But they are dead to some. They used to have complete power over the world… But now that the humans are alive, they don't. No one believes in them anymore. They are obsessed with being needed. Now that not everyone in the universe needs them…" Reyna trailed off and lightly shrugged her shoulders. "They could be considered as dead."

Nico put his elbow on his thigh and leaned his chin in his palm. His eyelids drooped sleeplessly and in belief. "They've still cheated death."

"Death is inevitable. It will happen to everyone."

But Nico wasn't finished: "Even my father, who controls death. He's cheated it. He's cheated himself. He's cheated me."

Reyna clasped her hands together. "You should learn to forgive your father."

"Why?" He retorted.

"Because you said so yourself: he controls death. He's a god. Like I said, gods are obsessed with being needed—they can't care or love for another because they're so addicted with someone in need for them. That is why they are unresponsive with their own children. Because they simply can't." Reyna said, her voice severe, "You just have to deal with it."

Nico stared at her, his lips pressed together but unable to control their own shaking. They wanted to yell at her that she was wrong, that the gods could still have control over that, and his legs ached to stand and leave but he couldn't find the power in himself to do it. Just like all the other times to end it all, he couldn't find the truth in himself to actually do it.

Nico told himself to put it away. He buried his fists deeper into his sleeves and through his shaggy black hair, he looked up at the dead sky. It was all dead around him.

After he calmed himself from the silent steam, he asked in a deadly calm, "How? How can you? How do you deal with it?"

Reyna looked over at him. "I've learned,"

"And I haven't?"

"You've experienced." Reyna said. She knew Nico and that he understood people and the world as much as she did but there was only one ugly truth: he only understood the demons.

"How do you know?" Nico countered, not believing her. He did not exactly like that she was speaking as if she knew him so well.

Reyna said, "You were a part of the Roman camp for quite some time. I was told some other facts from Hazel, your sister. And Percy,"

Nico winced at the name, frowning deeply. Reyna noticed how much further his shadows dragged.

Reyna furrowed her eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Nothing,"

"No. Don't beat about the bush." She deepened her seriousness, borrowing his words.

"It's nothing." He seethed through gritted teeth. Nico looked at her from beneath his disheveled black bangs.

Reyna noticed the linings beneath his eyes. The baggage that hung from beneath his dark eyes. She saw what was lost in his eyes, what was broken. She saw what made him so angry.

"You're in love," she said in realization.

Nico began to shake. "Stop it." He clenched his fists so hard he could feel his fingernails biting into his skin.

"But they do not love you back." Reyna continued, not obeying to his demand.

Nico turned away. "I said stop!" His voice began to rise.

She thought back to what had triggered his angry response and it clicked together inside of her. "With… Percy."

He noted how she didn't question it, but she stated it. But he still didn't look back at her. He felt the sorrow rumble inside of him.

"I know that feeling; that look," Reyna said, "I've seen it—"

"No," Nico interrupted, "You don't understand anything about it. Nothing at all about it."

But Reyna did not stop. Their voices overlapped but her continuation was clear. "—before on myself."

Nico stopped and he looked over at her, barely turning his head. "What do you mean?"

"With Jason." Reyna frowned. "And some with Percy. It's a very lonely feeling. It's not very flattering."

Nico shook his head. "You still wouldn't understand."

Reyna pressed her lips together. She was growing impatient with him. "How so? You aren't the only lost soul in the world to have lost someone. To have not been loved back. You are not the only one, Nico."

"I'm worse than that," He kept shaking his head. "I'm already an outcast and now I can't help but feel this way with him. Do you know what that says about me?"

Reyna studied him. A lock of her dark brown hair fell in front of her shoulder. "It says you are in love. What else? What is worse than that?"

Nico stared at her like she were crazy.

"What?"

"You really don't understand," he said as he marveled at her. "It's not… Some people don't agree with… with that. They forbid it. They forbid someone like me." He looked down at his hands.

"Homosexuality," Reyna said, "is not something entirely different. It has been known about the world for a long, long time. It doesn't come to much of a surprise. Okay, so some people do not agree with it, but that is their opinion. Don't let someone's opinion change your opinion. It's why it is an opinion. You cannot hide what you feel just because it is labeled. If you love someone," she said softly and with another shrug. "Then you love someone. Hiding the situation that is reality would just be foolish."

Nico stared at her but his expression was unidentifiable. "…What?"

Reyna knew how people were. She knew how the world was. She knew there were many different things out there. Upon realization of Nico and how he felt towards Percy did not come to a surprise. In fact, she respected it. For a kid like him to go through so much as a demigod and this and still hold it together like he does—it was valued.

She gave him a look. "Shall I repeat myself?"

Nico shook his head lightly. "Um, no. No," he said, "I just didn't expect that from you… Thank you." He said reticently.

Reyna straightened and nodded. She placed her hand on his own and Nico accepted her friendly gesture.

Once she took her hand away, she asked again, "Who else knows?"

Nico hesitated before he said, "Jason."

A ghost of a wince flickered across her face at the name. She frowned a little and the name tumbled through her stomach.

"He didn't really understand it too well." Nico continued.

Reyna let out a small chuckle. "Understandable,"

"How did you deal with it with Jason?" Nico asked. He was always one to be oblivious with his certain pondering questions.

Reyna gazed at the sky. The still sky. The dark sky that was immobile to speak. "Same way you did with Percy. I just tried to hide it. I kept telling myself it was nothing… That I didn't love him, that I was just more aware of him than anyone else."

"It doesn't work." Nico said in exasperation.

"No, it doesn't." Reyna said, "Because in the end, they'll always choose someone else." She looked over at him. "But that doesn't mean they still don't love you. Percy loves you, but he chose Annabeth. I would hope Jason still loves me, but he chose Piper. I must accept it and so should you."

Nico began to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Reyna furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"I like the way you think,"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "And why is that?"

"It's the truth. And it's not pitiful. I hate it when people look at me like I'm something lost or broken and you don't do that either."

"Hm," She said as she looked back up at the stars. "I wouldn't like that, either."

Nico tilted his head up to also gaze at the stars. Another silence settled in between them and the stars seemed to stare right back at them, waiting for more words to be spoken. Reyna obliged to that desire:

"How much further away do you believe we are?"

"Camp Half-Blood is still across the water. That's pretty far away and the last trip drained me. I think I'll still need a while to recover before I can carry on."

"We do not have much time," Reyna said stiffly.

"I know." He said, his tolerance for the rush to get to Camp thinning beneath him. "But if I lose my energy, my power, in the middle of travelling, we could end up in the middle of the sea. That would make things worse."

Reyna straightened. He was correct; he had a point. They had to wait, no matter how terrible their time left was. She nodded.

"It looks different," Reyna then said.

"What does?"

"The sky. It looks… Tired." She frowned. "Like it knows we don't have much time left, either."

Nico nodded. "That's how the Underworld looks like. 'Cause that's where people go when their time has already run out."

"That must be appalling."

Nico said nothing for he already knew it was like that. Yet another short silence stood still between them like the stars that hung un-brilliantly.

Nico stopped the silence short again. "Which one's your favorite?"

"Which what?" Reyna urged him.

"Constellation,"

Reyna pondered. After all the days she had looked up at the stars and studied the planets and the astronomy and the constellations that decorated the sky, she did not particularly have a favorite one she'd studied about. But there was one she admired to observe.

"The Huntress," she said. She searched for it in the sky and held up her hand, pointing to the certain stars. They were the only ones that blinked, as if Reyna had touched them and they felt it.

Nico smiled softly. "I used to know her,"

Reyna blinked and stared at him in confusion. "How is that possible?"

"She used to be an actual Huntress. Of Artemis," he said. "She was… A friend. Of my sister—she was a Huntress, too."

"Was?" After Nico's silence, Reyna frowned. "My apologies. Continue."

"She had died. The girl in the constellation, I mean. And when she died, the constellation had appeared in the sky. That's what I was told,"

"What was her name?" Reyna inquired.

Nico had to take a moment to remember. It had been years and years ago—when he first met Percy. And he never actually talked to her. But he can remember bits from what he was told and what he had heard in the Underworld. "Zoë, I think. Zoë Nightshade."

The name intrigued Reyna. "She sounds brave."

"She was," Nico said, "Or so I was told."

Reyna nodded. And another silence was talking with them. Reyna didn't seem to mind all these intervals of silence. They were comforting, along with the intervals of nights to look to the stars. It was pleasant to have such a talk with the child of Hades—no, not the child. The only way he seemed to be connected to the god was through his powers but he was Nico. He was far better than being reliant on people needing him—much less even sit with him. Never in her younger years would she consider such a friendship with the Greeks but now that she could see it; now that she experienced and learned its truth, she realized something about it.

Reyna awaited for the days to come. She was not sure what would happen or that they would even win the war or that they would even make it to meet the Romans there in time, but she knew this: two civilizations not just coming together, but being friends, would not be such a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.

Author's Note:

This was basically just a friendly one-shot of the two... Maybe something I wish would be said during the Blood of Olympus or something that won't be said, but either way, I do not own these characters - Rick Riordan does. I've never really considered Nico or Reyna as a "ship", but I think they would make really good friends considering that they can understand what the other has been through; they've been through the same things, technically. And I really admire that! I hope Rick puts a scene with these in the next novel.

This FanFiction was inspired by the song Bright by Echosmith. It really is a beautiful song as well is the band; I suggest you go check them out if you have not heard of them before.

Also this was just a short break from my PJO Jason/Piper FanFiction, Dreams Make Miracles. If you like that couple, please go check it out! It's at its eleventh chapter now! :)

In addition, I'd like to hint that I do have an idea for a Kingdom Keepers FanFiction but I have not written it out yet. Tell me if you would like to read something like that from me in the near future.

Also, please review if you enjoyed this story! It would really mean a lot to me! :)

Thanks for reading! :D

- Never