Chapter Text
“I know you,” Percy says, pinning the two boys with a hard, calculating stare.
Nico offers a hand to shake, looking coolly over the older demigod while simultaneously (and somewhat unsubtly) stepping hard on Jason’s foot to keep him from saying anything. “Do you?”
--
Nico had meant, originally, to strike out on his own and figure things out. And if he died, well – it wasn’t like anyone would miss him anymore. Bianca probably wouldn’t have missed him even if she were alive.
What he didn’t expect was that Jason, one of the only people Nico had made any kind of connection with at Camp, would follow him. But then again, maybe he should have – Jason seemed to know a thing or two about being left behind.
(Wasn’t that Thalia girl his big sister? Leaving him for the Hunters just like Bianca had?)
“Leave me alone,” Nico spat.
“No,” Jason replied.
And that was that.
Or rather, they went back and forth like that for a while and then Nico gave in, because it was easier to have backup and a living person of similar size to him to spar with, and because he really, really didn’t want to be alone.
And that was that.
--
Jason was there when Minos started pushing Nico further and further over the edge, to say “Hey, Nico, I don’t really trust this guy,” and “maybe Bianca has her reasons not to want to talk,” and “you know, Percy’s just a kid, too, and there couldn’t have been much he could do –“
“Say whatever else you want, Jace, but I don’t want to hear about Percy from you,” Nico hissed.
“I’m just saying,” Jason said. in a low voice, “that he didn’t mean for Bianca to get hurt. You’re just spiraling. Also –“ he glances back over his shoulder – “Minos gives me the creeps. You’re angry, and he’s just making it worse.”
“He’s a ghost, they always give you the creeps,” Nico dismissed, glancing back at the shadowy figure.
“Not like this,” insisted Jason. He gripped Nico’s arm tightly. “Please, Nico, just be careful.”
But he didn’t say I told you so when Minos tried to betray them, just stood at Nico’s back with lightning crackling at his fingertips while Nico took hold of his powers for real for the first time. And he didn’t stay at Camp with Annabeth and Percy and Grover, even though they asked. Even though Annabeth gave him that older sister glare that even gave Nico a chill.
“I’m staying with Nico,” Jason said. He was shoulder-to-shoulder with Nico, solid and grounding.
Annabeth’s eyes flicked from Jason to Nico. “And Nico is –“
“Leaving,” Nico said firmly. “Don’t kid yourself, Chase, there’s no place for me here and we both know it. I’m better off among the dead.”
“Jason is a son of Zeus,” Annabeth bit out, obviously restraining herself. “And the best place for him is –“
“He is right here!” Nico interrupted with a sharp gesture toward Jason. “And he told you what he wants to do!”
“Annie,” Jason said, his voice soft now, “I’m staying with Nico. The best place for me is anywhere but here. In fact, I’m sure it’s with my best friend.”
Annabeth, though clearly still unhappy, didn’t argue about it anymore.
Nico tried not to go too red at the casual way Jason had called him his best friend.
--
Hades and Jason didn’t precisely like each other, at least not for a very long time. Hades had his ideas about Nico’s worth, and which of the di Angelo children should have survived. Jason had his own opinions about those things, too.
In fact, the first and only time that Nico saw Jason pull a Percy Jackson and backtalk a god was standing in Hades’s palace in the Underworld.
“With all due respect, sir,” Jason said, one hand firmly gripping Nico’s, “Bianca hadn’t even come into her powers when she died. Nico has been working very hard to master his, and he has a degree of control I can only wish for. He’s really a great tribute to the power of your house. Sir.”
“Who are you?” Hades replied.
“Jason Grace, sir,” Jason said, the picture of politeness. “Son of Zeus.”
Hades rolled his eyes, dismissive. “You just want the glory of the prophecy for yourself, like the Jackson boy. Bianca was older than you.”
“I really don’t, sir,” Jason blurted. “Percy can have it.”
That gave Hades pause. “You don’t want to be the child of the prophecy?”
“No,” Jason said emphatically. “Why would I? I’m just a kid, sir. So is Nico. That’s a lot of responsibility for a sixteen-year-old, and – and I don’t want anyone else to die for me to be the one.”
Nico squeezed Jason’s hand.
“What is your interest with my son?” Hades asked, changing tack so fast Nico was left with some hefty metaphorical whiplash.
“Uh,” said Jason, glancing nervously at Nico. Great, now he was nervous. “He’s my best friend?”
Hades hummed thoughtfully, eyes narrowed, and Nico was just starting to get nervous about how long he was just staring at them when he said, “You are, without doubt, the strangest son of Jupiter I’ve met in all of my years.”
“Son of –“ Jason echoed softly, brow furrowed.
“There is somewhere you boys should visit,” Hades said.
--
Camp Jupiter was strange. Structured where Camp Half-Blood was not, with a survival rate amongst legionnaires that had both Nico and Jason in stunned disbelief. But it was also…
“You have to join,” Praetor Reyna insisted. Despite the fact that there were legionnaires as old as their early twenties, she could not have been older than fourteen or fifteen herself. Her partner, a stern-looking legacy of Apollo, seems to be a few years older. “We have not had the honor of a child of Jupiter in our ranks in decades, and this is the safest place for a demigod of your power to be.”
Jason, visibly uncomfortable, looked to Nico before saying, “Like Ambassador di Angelo said, we are here on behalf of his father –“
“A child of Jupiter, running errands for Pluto?” Praetor Helen asked, raising an eyebrow.
“More like keeping his son company,” Jason corrected. He grimaced a bit. “Lord Pluto and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on everything, but he doesn’t mind that I tag along with Nico on official business.”
This was the official story for why Jason was here, though in reality it was something of the other way around – Hades had given Nico and Jason the opportunity to see where Jason “should” have been raised, what Roman life could be like.
“Perhaps it will be good for both of you,” he’d said, before giving them a busy-work reason to excuse their presence at the camp.
“You’ll at least allow us to host you both for a few days,” Praetor Helen said, not a request. “Perhaps we’ll change your mind.”
So they did stay. Jason told Nico quietly one evening that he did feel some connection here, not quite an all-encompassing need to find a place here but a gentle tug in his chest.
“I don’t know,” Jason murmured, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Nico in the shadows of Pluto’s shrine. “It’s like – some missing piece of who I am has fallen into place, but also it’s –“ he flushed, ducking his head to avoid Nico’s gaze, “it’s nothing like the tug I feel telling me to stay with you.”
Nico’s heart skipped.
“You don’t have to, you know,” Nico replied, “stay with me.”
Jason pulled Nico’s hand into his, turning with his entire torso toward him. “But I want to, Nico. I always have. And anyway, we’re a team now. Even the Romans understand that you don’t leave your teammate behind.”
And Nico, in the shadow of his father’s statue on the hill of an unfamiliar camp but also in the most familiar place he knows, inches away from his newly-gangling best friend, says, “Right.”
And then he says:
“I’d stay here with you if you wanted to stay.”
“I don’t,” says Jason. “It’s the same as Camp Half-Blood. Everyone wants something from me, and all I’ll ever be is the son of Jupiter. With you, wherever we are, I’m just Jason.”
And that was that.
Or, at least, it would have been – but war was looming, and the Romans needed Jason’s power and Jason couldn’t look Luke in the eye with a weapon in hand, not really, but Nico needed to be at Camp Half-Blood so they separated.
Annabeth looked at Nico like he’d done something personally awful to her when he dared to show up without her beloved baby brother, but Nico had long since learned to take Annabeth’s dirty looks with a grain of salt. She was stressed, and she didn’t know what Nico knew.
“He’s on a mission for my father,” Nico said, and it was mostly true, “we’re in touch. He’s fine.”
Percy spouted his usual bullshit about wanting to look out for Nico, immediately before and after dragging Nico along with him into a dangerous situation. Nico had long since learned to take Percy’s promises with a grain of salt, too.
Percy took on the Curse of Achilles – Jason and Nico had come to it as the best, possibly only, solution last year after it had clicked that that was what Luke had done. Jason and Nico had an overlapping if not quite identical interest in understanding the world that made them, and it had been Jason’s idea in the end. Dad – Hades – took an opportunity to try to screw Percy over one last time in hopes of at least Jason being child of the prophecy, not that he much liked the idea of a child of Zeus/Jupiter getting the glory but he did at least like Jason well enough nowadays.
Two nights before Percy’s sixteenth birthday, Nico and Jason had a long, late Iris message. It ended with:
“Be safe.”
“I’m always safe.”
Jason snorted. “You’re not usually on your own.”
“At least I’m with Chase and Jackson,” Nico replied, rolling his eyes. “They don’t always have my back like they have yours, but at least we know them. The Romans make me nervous. Too many unknown elements.”
“I’ll be okay,” Jason said, waving him off. “And if anything happens you’ll be there like that.” He snapped, with a goofy little grin.
They had been testing the limits of Nico’s shadow travel lately, and it had gone… well, Nico was getting much more reliable at it than he had been when they started.
“I miss you,” Nico blurted. He didn’t mean to, not really, because they didn’t say things like that, but before he could blush or take it back Jason just said,
“I miss you, too.” He sighed. “You know we haven’t been apart this long in two years? Not since we ran away. It’s weird.”
“Yeah,” agreed Nico. “Just a few days, though.”
Jason said goodbye and wished Nico luck in clumsy Italian, which he’d started learning after Dad told them a few months back that Nico had been born in Italy. Nico couldn’t help but smile, somewhere between amusement at his still awkward pronunciation and warmth at the fact that Jason was trying at all.
“Thanks, Jace,” Nico replied. “Take care of yourself.”
--
“Where’s your shadow?” Connor Stoll asked, after it was all over.
Nico let out a startled laugh. “Cali. On a job for Dad.”
“You’ve got Jace Grace doing your chores, Nico?” asked Travis.
“Not exactly,” said Nico. “It was something Dad wanted him for, not me. Helped us turn the tide though.”
This, Nico knew. Jason had led the Romans up Mt. Othrys, fighting the Titan Krios and helping to topple Kronos’s throne. The Romans didn’t know what had happened in the East, not any more than the Greeks knew what had happened in the West, but if the two camps hadn’t been working in sync, neither could have succeeded.
Jason had called after things had settled somewhat. He was battered and bruised but alive, and looked just as relieved as Nico felt to see that the same was true of Nico.
“Tell him he should come home sometime,” Connor said seriously. “We know it’s complicated for you guys here, but this is still home, isn’t it?”
“I only lived here a week,” Nico pointed out.
Travis threw an arm over his shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. There’s a place for you here. Even if it’s only with me and Con.”
Weirdly, Nico is pretty sure that they mean it.
“Thanks,” he said sincerely, “but we’re going to keep moving, I think.”
--
Hazel came as a surprise. The rules of Death were getting weird and blurry, and Nico wasn’t sure why, but it was as good an opportunity as any to do one last sweep of the Underworld to try to bring Bianca back. Jason, who had watched Nico fall to pieces when she died, kindly did not point out that this was probably a bad idea.
And anyway, they didn’t find Bianca. Bianca was gone, reborn to some new life. Maybe in that life she won’t have a little brother to run away from.
(Maybe in that life, she’ll have a little brother she won’t want to run away from.)
Instead, they found Hazel.
Taking her was a bit impulsive, but no one has ever accused Nico of not being impulsive.
“I’m your brother,” Nico said when they were on the surface. “My name is Nico.”
“And you’re –“ Hazel said, eyeing Jason curiously. He towered over Nico nowadays, and Hazel was nearly Nico’s same height. He would look a bit intimidating, Nico thought, if not for the crooked glasses (smushed out of alignment in a fight and they haven’t gone back to the ghostly optometrist who prescribed them yet), stapler scar, and goofy grin.
“Jason,” Jason supplied helpfully. “I hang out with Nico.”
“In the Underworld?” asked Hazel.
Nico and Jason looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged.
“Everywhere,” they said in a funny almost-unison.
“She’s Roman,” Jason murmured into Nico’s ear later, and Nico didn’t ask how he knew. “We should take her to Camp.”
Nico wanted to say no, she should stay with us, but he knew that there were things he and Jason couldn’t teach her. She needed real training, control.
Camp Jupiter it was.
The Romans were wary, looking at this small, dangerous girl backed by the Ambassador of Pluto and the Hero of Mt. Othrys, but they accepted her, let her go through their ritual for arrival and that was going to be that.
Reyna and her new partner, Praetor Mike Kahale, made their offer again for Jason to stay. Jason said no.
Mike looked across the both of them, something strange and knowing in his gaze.
“Alright,” he said. Reyna didn’t press.
Nico, feeling oddly and uncomfortably seen, nodded sharply. He pressed a kiss to Hazel’s cheek before she would be escorted to the Wolf House. “Be safe. Be brave. We’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon,” Hazel replied.
Jason waved. Hazel waved back.
--
Things fell apart pretty quickly after that, unfortunately. Hazel had just started to settle at Camp Jupiter when Mike went missing, when Percy went missing and that felt like a slap in the face and a weight in Nico’s chest, and then he and Jason were scouring the country, looking for anything and everything that might be a sign of one of them.
Mike showed up first, on some field trip with a pair of Greek half-bloods, and Nico and Jason showed up with Annabeth to save the day. Mike didn’t recognize them.
Jason wanted to spill everything immediately, but Nico held him back. The last thing that they needed was to piss off whatever god had set this up; best to hang back and watch for the moment. Not to play their hand too soon.
And to get to Camp Jupiter as soon as possible to see if Percy had shown up there.
It turned out that Mike and Piper – one of the two other demigods he’d picked up – are siblings on the godly side, and they had some complicated web of fake memories that meant that they knew that they were half-siblings who shared a mom, just not who that mom actually was. And Leo, the other one, is their implanted-memory best friend.
(Percy was not at Camp Jupiter. Yet.)
So Mike and Leo and Piper went on a quest, and Mike got hurt bad but survived and when they got back to Camp he was starting to get his memories back. He gave Jason this look when they visited Camp next, and Nico figured it might be time to make themselves scarce a while until Percy showed up on the West Coast.
“I know you,” Mike said, gripping Jason’s arm tightly. It was late, everyone else had dispersed from the campfire.
“It’s complicated,” Jason said, ducking his head.
Nico met Mike’s eye, defiant. He may be smaller than Jason, but he was no less powerful. If it came to it, they could take Mike in a fight easily. “We work for my father.”
“And we’ve crossed paths before?” said Mike. It wasn’t really a question. “You’ve been to the other Camp.”
“It’s complicated,” Jason repeated, more firmly this time. “Mike, you can’t tell anyone. Not yet.”
“They already don’t trust me,” Nico said, soft.
“And should they?” said Mike.
“We –“
“Yes,” Jason interrupted. “Yes, they should. And you should too.”
Mike frowned, eyes narrowed. “Is Jackson at the other Camp?”
“No,” said Nico. “Believe me, we’ve been looking.”
“Alright,” said Mike.
--
They knew this was coming, but it’s still a surprise to see Percy Jackson trailing Hazel up Temple Hill.
“This is my brother,” Hazel introduces, indicating Nico like his coal black eyes don’t give away his parentage, “and his – friend.”
Jason makes an awkward, startled noise, clearly unprepared to just be introduced.
“Nico di Angelo,” Nico says, offering Percy a hand to shake. “And this is Jason.”
Percy doesn’t take the hand, just glares at Jason and Nico both. “I know you.”
“Do you?”