Kayla, Austin, and I sat as a group on one of the logs near the campfire.

It was almost always Austin who engaged us all in a campfire song.

Today, it was 'We Didn't Start the Fire'.

Ironic, yes, I know.

That went on for quite a while until Chiron caught us and made us sing 'This Land is Minos' Land', 'Down by the Aegean', and several more Greek classics.

It was fun, and everyone seemed to think so, by the look of the bright golde, 20-foot high flames.

Needless to say it was beautiful.

Austin even joined in with his saxophone, belting out a jazzy tune to go along with 'This Land is Minos' Land'.

But even in the lighthearted mood, I noticed one thing:

Nico di Angelo wasn't singing.

He just sat on a log, legs crossed, tapping his fingers to the beat, but not actually joining in.

Even the people with the worst of voices *cough cough* me *cough cough* were joining in.

Deciding to lighten his mood, I reached around Kayla to poke his shoulder.

Nico looked up and mouthed "What?"

I jerked my head towards the canoe lake.

Nico looked a little confused, but got up and walked for the canoe lake.

I waited for a moment so no one would notice I left, but then slid off of the log from next to Kayla and Austin to run to the canoe lake.

Nico was waiting for me there, sitting on the ground and playing with his fingers.

He looked up. "Why'd you call me here?" he asked curiously.

"You weren't singing," I noted.

"I don't sing," said Nico, returning his fidgety attention to his fingers.

I laughed, sitting down opposite him. "You should hear my voice. Everyone thinks the Apollo kids have beautiful, sunshine magic voices. That's really more Austin's thing."

Nico thought for a second. "I've heard you sing," he said. "The time you tried the Tangled thing on me. You don't have THAT bad a voice."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult."

"Depends who you're comparing it to."

"You. Let's say we're comparing to you."

"Then you have the most heavenly voice I've ever heard."

I know he was joking, but something about that made my stomach drop.

"I'm sure you're not THAT bad," I said insistently. 

There was a pause for a second, which I broke with, "Can you sing for me?"

Nico shook his head. "Absolutely not."

"Have you ever sung?" I asked curiously.

Nico hesitated. "I- used to."

"And why don't you now?" Then I realized I might have been prying too hard. "Sorry. Just a little curious."

"No, no, it's alright," said Nico, waving it off. "I get it. But, uh, I kinda stopped singing- both for myself and for anyone else after... my sister."

I nodded, not knowing what exactly to say.

A long silence. 

"I can't say I know how you feel," I said honestly. "I've never really had anyone die in my life. I guess the closest feeling was having so many people die in the war against Gaea. I'm still confused how I feel about Octavian, though."

Nico nodded in agreement. "He was horrible, but... I was worse. I just let him die."

"Let him," I said. "Not actually killed him. Did you see how he oppressed Reyna? He went against probably every rule a praetor should follow. He did deserve his fate, but I'm not happy that it had to happen."

Nico said nothing.

"Yeah," I continued weakly. "Um... yeah."

More silence.

The wind gently brushed our hair to the side. 

Leaves rustled against the grass.

I started humming 'Welcome To Wonderland' by Anson Seabra at a slow pace, almost calmingly.

Nico looked up at me.

He started humming along under his breath. 

A smile twitched at the corner of my lips.

Our humming slowly progressed into singing under our breaths, which turned into regular voice-level singing.

Nico had a beautiful voice, contrary to what he had said. It was quiet and gentle, and it sounded kinda like a wind chime tinkling.

The song ended.

"We should head back to the campfire," I said, standing up and dusting off my pants.

"Yeah," said Nico, standing up with me. "Listen- thanks for that. It was... pretty fun."

I smiled warmly. "Anytime."

Ahhhhhhh hope you enjoyed :)

Thx for so many reads i'm very happy 😌

love, jui 'hp and pjo nerd' weasley