Flowergirl, Percy Jackson

017. The Battle of the Labyrinth

The air before the battle is tense.

Lila's not sure what she expected - she's never been in a battle before, after all, but for once, the demigods of Camp Half-Blood are not arguing. Even the Hermes cabin have stopped trying to sabotage the rest of the camp. Everyone is wearing full armour, not the half-assed way they do before Capture the Flag.

The Hephaestus kids have set up traps all around the Labyrinth - Greek fire, trip wires, anything you could imagine. Beckendorf himself is behind a massive cannon. Clarisse is shouting orders and for once, almost the entire camp is listening to her, knowing that the Ares cabin has the most expertise or natural sense when it comes to warfare. Annabeth immediately jogs off to join the Athena cabin, and Malcolm looks so uncharacteristically relieved to see his Head Counsellor that Lila deduces the situation must be dire.

"So," Lila says, as casually as she can. "We're siblings now." Great start. Not at all stilted.

Nico blinks slowly, his hand still wrapped around the hilt of his sword. The black smoke of the metal writhes and resists like a moth to his flame, itching for a fight. "Cool."

They're as awkward as each other. Still, Lila rolls her eyes at his monotone response. "Nico, I know you're upset, but - "

"I'm not upset," he doesn't meet her eyes, fraying the edge of his tattered shirt with his fingers. "You've been nothing but good to me. I've been terrible to you."

Lila smiles at him, gently as possible. "You were in pain."

"You didn't deserve it," he admits. "I took it out on you."

"I know." Something inside her settles at his words, a raging storm calmed by only a breeze. I didn't deserve it. Nico di Angelo is her guardian angel, and he doesn't even know it. She takes the phrase as her mantra. "You lost your sister."

He nods slowly.

"I'm not her replacement," Lila insists, because she knows that if she doesn't make it clear now, she will never leave Bianca's shadow. "I'm not her."

"I know." He mutters, "I'm surprised you still tolerate me."

Lila laughs at that. Perhaps she's not the only one with a low opinion of herself. Nico's right in a way; he wasn't kind, but he wasn't unkind either. He was hurting. "We're family now, remember?" And isn't that what family is, in the end? Someone to accept you no matter what you do, no matter how you hurt them? Someone who will forgive you for everything, time and time again. (There are some things that can't be forgiven. Luke is not family anymore.)

But isn't that what Luke and Ethan and Lila have spent their lives chasing? A family, and a parent? Forgiveness? In their world of dysfunction, Nico is a better brother than any of her godly siblings, she's sure. She'd rather have one Nico than a thousand willing godly parents.

"Family," he repeats. He doesn't sound too upset - a win, in Lila's books.

"You're my idiot to watch now," Lila snickers.

Nico rolls his eyes, a flash of pain flickering over his face, settling into acceptance. "Nah, your idiot is over there."

He points; she follows his eyes, to see Percy talking with Chiron, engrossed in some kind of serious debate. He looks over to them, gesturing wildly; they're probably talking about Nico's parentage. When he meets her eyes he smiles, like he's happy to see her.

"You know you can't convince me not to fight, right?" Nico adds, cutting through Lila's reverie.

Lila gulps. "Can I try?"