If you recognise it, it's not mine.

At this point, Annabeth isn't even surprised. Shocked, yes, and frustrated and disappointed, but surprised? Nah.

They're all at the private showing of an art exhibition Rachel's featured in- she had a bunch of free passes, and the free passes all had plus ones attached, so there's a good ten demigods/satyrs/dryads come to see the art. They're all dressed up- kind of- and they're relaxed and having a nice time. So of course weird stuff happens.

Rather than wandering around the gallery in a clump, they've all paired off. She's distracting Percy with little games- how many paintings have blue in them, how many have fish in them- because he loves Rachel, they all do, but abstract/surrealist fusion isn't really his thing, and there's a snooty-looking woman who's almost certainly judging him every time he glances wistfully at the food table at the far end of the hall. Jason and Piper are messing around a little, trying to copy the poses of one of the sculptures, Frank and Hazel- mostly Hazel- are talking to Rachel about her painting, Grover and Juniper are arguing over the species of trees in a set of woodland scenes, and Nico and Will are just kind of wandering around together.

Maybe it's that she and Percy have been away for several months in New Rome, or maybe it's the fact that she hasn't actually ever seen Nico out in public (quests don't count, especially not for Nico). Either way, he looks so normal walking beside Will now, even if the son of Apollo appears to be demonstrating bandage-wrapping on his wrist, and she's so proud. She's actually about to distract Percy from his search for pictures including flowers just so she can point it out to him, when the weirdness starts.

She wouldn't have noticed anything at first if she hadn't been watching them so closely. Nico freezes, standing incredibly still in the middle of the gallery. His eyes unfocus for a few seconds, and by the time Will's noticed and has whisked the bandage back around his own wrist, there's a terribly grim look on his face.

"What's wrong?" she hears Will murmur from across the room. "Underworld stuff?"

Nico nods. Annabeth grabs Percy's arm and starts moving, because this is Rachel's night and she's prepared to kill any monster that's planning on ruining it.

Percy's confused at first, but then he follows her gaze and swears softly. They know better than most just how accurate Nico's underworld senses usually are, and it's not his fault, but they never mean good things. His hands are shaking when they reach them.

"Someone's going to die," he says a little too loudly, but it doesn't matter. "I just felt it a few seconds ago, but it's soon, someone in here, and-" he breaks off when he realises Will's gone, sprinting across the gallery. "Will, what are you-"

Two seconds later, there's a shriek from across the room, and they chase after him, but he's surprisingly fast, and by the time they get there he's already on his knees beside the body of a middle-aged man in a suit. "I'm a medical student," he snaps at the concerned questions from the crowd that's gathered around them.

"You look like a teenager." The same woman who was glaring at Percy earlier tries to push forward, but Frank shifts a little- honestly, bless Frank and his passive-aggressive blocking abilities- and she thinks better of it.

"Yes," Will says vaguely, and it's clear that he barely heard her. "I need everyone to get out of my way! Please-" He flaps a hand at them all distractedly, the rest of his attention on the man in front of him.

"Do as he says," Nico adds, sounding strangely subdued, and Annabeth suddenly knows why.

She's known for a few years now that Will can sometimes sense injuries just before they happen, the same way Nico can sense death. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on when they both react at the same time.

Will knows too, she can see it in the way he suddenly seems a thousand times older when his hands pause at the man's neck, but he's efficient and in control anyway.

"Aneurysm," he says, and none of the mortals question how he knows that. "You-" he points to a trembling woman in a blue dress, probably the man's wife, "-call an ambulance."

"Is he going to be okay?" the woman quavers when she hangs up the phone.

Will's eyes are closed; his lips are moving slightly, and he's gone very pale. He doesn't answer.

Nico does. "No," he says, softly, gently, like glass shattering to powder. The woman gasps, smearing her lipstick as she clamps a hand over her mouth.

"Nico," Percy warns him, but he's looking at Will now, and Percy's words go unheeded. Annabeth's starting to worry, because she knows overuse of powers when she sees it, and there's a sheen of cold sweat on Will's forehead, his hands are trembling, his tongue is stumbling over whatever healing charm he's muttering over a dead body.

"Will," Nico whispers. "Will, stop. You can't help him."

"I," Will grits out, snatched words between the Greek, "can try."

"No, you can't," Nico snaps, and Annabeth is reminded of the few times she's seen Will get properly angry, forceful and snappish and commanding. There's something of that in Nico now; not his usual dark, dangerous fury, but a different sort of anger, something fuelled by concern.

"Young man, I don't know what you think you're doing, but-"

Someone else, a pompous older man who might be the father of one of Rachel's friends, Annabeth isn't sure who, pushes his way out of the crowd, grabbing Will roughly by the shoulder and jerking him away from the body. Will cries out in shock before slumping to the floor, exhausted, and Annabeth can hear the sigh of relief in Nico's breath even as he growls at the man to let him go. He drops to his knees at Will's side, lifting him to a loose sitting position. Will's head lolls drunkenly, but it's the white-knuckle terror on Nico's face that makes Annabeth's throat close up sharply, because at this point it takes a lot to scare a demigod, and Nico more than most.

"I think you should leave," Rachel says to them then, glamorous in her green dress and gloriously unruffled despite the fact that a man just died in the middle of her exhibition. "Don't worry. I'll handle things." Annabeth could have kissed her.

Will looks like he wants to protest, and also like he's about to pass out, but Nico takes his elbow and hauls him up, and Percy slings Will's other arm over his shoulder, and the whole ragged group of them make their way out of the gallery.

"He really is a medical student," Annabeth can hear Rachel explaining behind them. "A prodigy. He's just got some... sensory issues?"

She can feel a wry look that's more of a grimace than anything else cross her face as she looks at the two boys in front of her. They look so young, suddenly- the bandage has come loose from Will's wrist, trailing along behind them until Nico scoops it up and pockets it with one shaking hand.

"I'm taking him straight back to camp," he says bluntly when they get outside, and although everyone protests, because Nico's as rattled by what just happened as everyone else and probably shouldn't be shadow travelling, he seems set on it until Will tugs limply at his elbow and whispers something that makes his face twist fiercely for a second before settling into quiet resignation.

Annabeth ends up sitting next to them at the back of the van they borrowed from Argus for the night. Percy's driving; she, apparently, is too much of a shotgun driver to be anywhere near him, so Grover and Juniper have taken the other two front seats; Jason, Piper, Frank and Hazel are in the middle row, Hazel curled up on Frank's lap; that leaves Annabeth, Nico and Will in the back seats, not that the two boys seem to have noticed she's there.

"Gods, Will," Nico's muttering. "You tell me not to overextend my powers, and then you go and pull something like this?" The worry-anger is in his voice again, choking his words.

"I had to help," Will mumbles back. He's slumped in his seat, held up more by the seatbelt than his own body, and more by Nico than the belt. "I had to try."

"You can't try to bring people back from the dead!" Nico snaps suddenly, his voice cracking mid-sentence. Percy swears and swerves abruptly, jostling everyone sideways. "You just can't," Nico continues in a harsh whisper, ignoring the fact that Will is now more in his lap than out of it. "You idiot, Solace. I could feel your life force draining, you know that?" He starts running his fingers through Will's hair almost absently, the same way Will was fidgeting with the bandage earlier.

"You knew he was going to die," Will murmurs at him.

Nico takes a deep, shuddering breath. "Yes, I did," he says eventually. "The same way you knew it was coming."

There's silence for a minute, so absolute that Annabeth's afraid Will's passed out altogether, until Nico's hand stills on his head, and he asks so softly she barely catches it, "You want me to say if it happens again?"

Will barely hesitates before answering. "No. I... I need the hope, Nico." There's something so haunted in that phrase, and it breaks Annabeth's heart to hear the tears in his voice when he repeats it. "I need the hope."

A few minutes after that, Will makes a soft keening noise between his teeth, and Nico inhales sharply. "Will," he hisses. "Will, what do I do?"

Annabeth fishes for one of the stashes of ambrosia she knows Argus hid everywhere, but Will shakes his head. Even in the dim light, she can see how horrifyingly pale he's gone; he's shaking badly, breathing unevenly through gritted teeth.

"Will-" Nico says again, and cries out when Will slumps bonelessly against him. His fingers flutter uselessly against his face, his neck, his chest, and he turns to Annabeth like he's just realised she's there. "Will, please-"

"He's probably in shock," Annabeth tells him gently. "You know what that is?" She feels slightly sick when Nico nods, because of course he does, but she's willing to bet that no-one ever tried to help him before. No wonder he doesn't know what to do. "Just... just hold him," she manages. "Hold him and don't let go."

Nico's almost crying, she can hear it in his breathing, so she turns away and watches the streetlights pass until they vanish into the night, and the van finally pulls up at Half-Blood Hill. Jason leans into the back to help Nico manoeuvre Will, barely conscious, out of the van while Percy explains the fiasco of an evening to Chiron in a low voice. Nico keeps glancing between the infirmary and the Hades cabin, and eventually picks the latter, Will cradled awkwardly in his arms.

Hazel watches them go, huddled into Frank's side like a cat sheltering from a storm, and Annabeth has never seen anyone look so heartbroken.

"Beach?" Percy suggests after a minute. Chiron nods- half of them are Roman, and the rest aren't children anymore, so they don't need to worry about the harpy-enforced curfew. They don't speak until they get there, spreading a blanket Piper fished out of the van on the ground and huddling together on the sand.

There's a few minutes of silence while Percy somehow gets as close to as many people as he can, seeking physical contact as if he's checking they're all there. "Nico knew it was coming," he says eventually, staring out at the sea. The waves seem to have stilled on the shore, glassy in the moonlight. "Before any of us even noticed something was up, he knew it was coming."

"Underworld powers are harsh," Frank says, looking at Hazel. She shakes her head.

"I can tell when it happens," she says. "Not before. Nico and I have different powers, you know? His... death sense, it's a lot more powerful than mine." She's shivering too, but Annabeth doesn't think it's from cold.

"Will knew as well," she says suddenly, talking faster than she meant to. "He can sense injuries before they happen- it's an Apollo thing, I think, a mix of prophecy and healing."

Grover whistles through his teeth. "Knowing your patient's going to die before you can start? Gods."

"That's not what she means," Piper cuts in. "Nico knew someone would die; Will just knew he was going to collapse. Is that right?"

Annabeth nods, and there's a silence as they all think about the implications of a relationship like that.

"They help each other," Hazel says after several minutes. "We all know that."

It's true; they've all seen the way Nico smiles more now, the way fragile emaciation has changed to wiry muscle and an olive tone has returned to his skin. Annabeth's known Will longer than any of them, although they've never been close. He seems more relaxed, as if the peaceful mask he has to wear for his work has sunk deeper somehow.

I need the hope, echoes in Annabeth's head, and she sighs and rests her head on Percy's shoulder.

"What do we do about it?" Jason asks next. "I mean-" He shakes his head, moonlight glinting off his glasses.

Everyone looks at Piper. The daughter of Aphrodite shrugs. "It's Nico," she says, and Percy tenses under Annabeth's cheekbone. "We do what we've always done."

"Screw up?" Percy asks hollowly, something dark in his voice.

"That's not fair-" Jason starts, but Percy doesn't let him finish.

"I've known Nico since he was a kid," he says bitterly. Annabeth can tell he's got his eyes closed tight, something smooth and salty dripping down the curve of his neck. "And it's different for you, Jason, but I've never been anything but a disappointment to him."

"That's not true," seven different voices say. Percy shakes his head. His fingers find Annabeth's and squeeze them tight.

"Percy," another voice says, this one behind them, rough and quiet. "Actually, all of you- shut up."

"Nico," Hazel breathes. Nico smiles thinly at her and walks forwards, finding a corner of blanket to sit on. He's still dressed in the black button-down he was wearing to the exhibition- they're all still dressed up, although Annabeth's hair's coming undone and Percy's already loosened his top shirt button.

"Will's sleeping," Nico says. There's something eerily familiar in this situation; Will had said almost exactly the same thing to them after he'd first managed to get Nico to lie down properly after the war. "He's exhausted," he'd continued. "He needs rest," and a lot of other medical stuff that worried and reassured them at the same time.

Nico isn't Will, though. "He's an idiot," he says bluntly. "An idiot with a heart too big for his own good."

Juniper laughs nervously, and Nico smiles at her. "I couldn't sleep," he says. "I mean, I kind of guessed you'd all be out here, talking about stuff, so I thought I'd come join." He laughs- it's a little less hollow than it used to be. "And just as well I did, huh, because Percy Jackson thinks he's a disappointment, and we can't have that, can we?"

"Nico," Percy says, twisting round to face him, "I-"

"Save it," Nico says, surprisingly gently. "I don't want to talk about that stuff tonight. You never gave up on me, and that's what's important. Okay?"

Percy's mouth opens, then closes again, and he nods.

"Cool," Nico says. Then there's a sharp elbow digging into Annabeth's side. "Hey, budge over a little. The sand's cold."

"Everything's cold," Jason mumbles from where he's slowly falling asleep draped across Percy and Piper's laps. He stretches a little, clumsily patting Nico on the knee, and yawns so widely his jaw clicks. "As a former praetor, I suggest bedtime," he says. Annabeth can see Piper rolling her eyes even as Percy scoffs, whacking Jason lightly on the head.

"As another former praetor, I suggest you're a wimp, Grace."

There's a grumbling noise that's either Jason's indignant response or very faint thunder, but before anything can happen, Frank clears his throat.

"As a current praetor, I strongly suggest that everyone who feels it necessary should go to bed," he says.

"That includes you, doesn't it," Hazel says, a smile in her voice for the first time since the exhibition, and Frank nods sheepishly.

In the end, nearly everyone leaves. Frank, Hazel, Jason and Piper disappear to their respective cabins, and after a tactful "June, you're shivering, don't feel like you have to stay," from Grover, Juniper heads back to the woods. Dryads aren't too good at night, he explains once she's gone. He stays though, moving to sit on Percy's other side.

"You still here, Nico?" Percy says into the night.

"Yeah," Nico says, to Annabeth's surprise; she'd thought that he'd left with the others, gone to check on Will.

"C'mere," Percy says, like a parent guiding his child. "Let's have a look at you."

Nico edges reluctantly into the centre of the blanket, hunching into himself. There's a long pause while Percy studies him, and Annabeth can hear him breathing. The sound mixes with the waves on the shore, soft and wet, and she can't tell who's crying until Percy shakes his head and pulls Nico into a tight hug. Grover glances at her, shrugs, and joins them, and she follows. She can feel them all under her hands; Grover's scrawny shoulders, curly hair almost long enough to touch them now; Nico's still-too-thin spine trembling as tears dampen the collar of his shirt; every inch of Percy that she knows so well.

"You okay?" Percy murmurs, and it's a jarring mark of how far Nico's come when he shakes his head straightaway.

"Do you want to talk?" Annabeth ventures. There's a few seconds of silence, and then Nico wriggles free from their hug, placing himself in a wider space between them, looking down at his hands, and just starts speaking.

"He almost died," he says softly. "I could see it, right there, slipping away from me. He's stable now, I think, but it'll hit him harder tomorrow, and-" He breaks off, takes a shuddering, painful breath. "He almost died," he says again, meeting their eyes with something only a few steps away from panic. "And- and-"

"You were afraid to lose him," Grover says softly.

Nico nods, exhales heavily. "Yeah."

"We've all been there," Percy says, and squeezes Annabeth's hand. "And you know what? That's a good thing. When you feel like that, it's like... like..." He trails off, face creasing in a frown.

"It's like having a place to come home to," Annabeth says, and she can't help but remember the days with Luke and Thalia, back when she was a child. Nico nods in agreement, and a little shiver runs through her when she's reminded of how much he's grown up in the last few years.

It isn't fair, a small part of her brain complains, and she knows it's right; nothing in Nico's life has ever been fair.

The next day, they drop into the infirmary. Nico's right; even asleep, he looks worse than he did last night, greyish skin drawn too tightly over his face. It's strange to see him lying in the bed instead of taking charge, although none of his siblings look too worried.

"It happens sometimes," Austin says when Annabeth asks. "This isn't as bad as it's been before. One time his nose started bleeding and wouldn't stop, even when he passed out. Scared the crap out of me." He glances at the bed, and there's a small smirk on his face. "'Course, he's in good hands. Nico's been there since we brought him in this morning."

Nico's perched on the edge of the bed, fidgeting with a little metal figurine which he hides in his fist when he sees them coming. He doesn't look too good either; dark shadows under his eyes, still dressed in yesterday's shirt, hair sticking up like it's trying to defy gravity.

"Nico," Jason says gently, like he's trying not to startle him, "have you even slept?"

There's a twenty second pause while Nico processes the question. "Not really."

There's a collective sigh from every single one of them. Austin looks slightly alarmed. "Probably should've seen that coming," he mutters. "Nico, with all due respect, you're an idiot."

"Go to sleep," Piper says, and Nico actually yawns before fixing her with a glare that looks like it's running out of batteries.

"I'm not leaving Will," he says, quiet but firm.

"You don't have to," Piper replies, tugging slightly at the blanket covering Will.

Nico flushes scarlet. "I- is that allowed?"

"I'm not looking," Austin says immediately, and wanders away humming.

Nico shrugs, kicks his shoes off, and wriggles into the bed, careful not to jostle Will in the process. "Happy now?" he murmurs, eyes already sliding shut.

Hazel leans down to plant a kiss on his forehead. "Yes," she says. "We'll see you later, if Will's up to it."

Nico's mumbled reply turns into a surprised hum as Will, apparently still asleep, drapes an arm across his chest and pulls him close.

Austin, smug grin firmly in place, starts herding them out of the door, but Annabeth takes one more look back at the pair of them, arms looped protectively over each other as they sleep.

This still isn't fair, not by a long shot, but it's close enough for now.