Silver Eyes | Nico di Angelo

Chapter 6: Late Night Conversations in the Hades Cabin

Chapter 6: Late Night Conversations in the Hades Cabin

I didn't have to be able to see my kind of rescuer to know that I had intruded into no other but Nico's cabin.

Pros? He was the only son of Hades... so that meant there weren't about twenty angry demigods who wanted to kill me for disturbing their sleep.

Cons? One, Nico was pretty much scarier than twenty demigods angry at me. Two, stuff was kind of awkward between us. Three, it was against the rules to have a boy and a girl of different godly parents together in the same cabin. Four, he looked like he wanted to kill me because... he was shirtless...?

My eyes had adjusted to the dark by then, unfortunately, though it took my mind a bit too long to respond to the fact that he actually had no shirt on. To make it worse, Nico reached over and flicked something, and brilliant brightness flooded into the room. Normally, I probably would've welcomed the light (being in a dark cabin with a guy? Alone? Nope.), but now that I could see, I would've rather not. His bangs clung to his forehead, still dripping water from what was a probable shower. His hair was very wet. Water trickled down his face and down his arms and chest in small droplets, his chest gleaming from the water--

I ripped my eyes away and covered my eyes with my hands. I probably should've apologized -- not only was it the most logical thing to do but in reality I had barged into his cabin without permission. I opened my mouth to say sorry, except the words that came out was, "Put on a shirt!"

Oh god. I mentally slapped myself in the face, waiting for Nico to snap at me.

Silence, then footsteps. The barely audible rustling of fabric. I kept my face hidden in my hands, not wanting to a) make him feel violated b) show him my face which was burning like crazy. Out of all the cabins, it had to be the Hades cabin? Good riddance. And Nico had to be the only one in it.

"Uh," I managed out. My voice was at least an octave too high. "Um. You... decent?"

His voice was tight. "Yes."

I slowly peeled my fingers away from my eyes and turned to face him, pulling on a lock of hair nervously, unsure of what to say. He had on a dark grey t-shirt, though I still couldn't shake off the embarrassment. I had the weird feeling he was still shirtless. I felt like I had pretty much messed everything up by blurting out at him to 'put on a shirt.' Gods, what was wrong with me? It wasn't even his problem. He had probably gotten up to get a shower, then was dressing when I had started banging on his cabin screaming bloody murder. There was even a towel tossed over one of the bunk beds. The more I thought about it, the more overwhelming the urge to turn and flee became. The tension in the air was becoming almost unbearable when Nico finally spoke.

"Why are you in my cabin?" he asked. To my surprise, he didn't sound mean or angry, just kind of confused with a bit of annoyance. "I was showering, you know."

"Oh," I managed to get out, kind of surprised he hadn't lashed out at me yet. "Oh. Sorry. I, um, I couldn't sleep because--" nightmares. I rushed on. "--anyways. I woke up to take a walk and a slight breather from everything, though nobody told me there were agressive half chicken ladies out there who were waiting to snag the nearest demigod for a early morning snack. So, I kind of ran and your cabin was the nearest to me. Sorry for interuppting your shower or whatever you were doing."

Nico rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, uh, it's fine," he managed out, sounding just as awkward as I felt. His suddenly expression hardened. "Hasn't anyone ever explained the rules to you? You're not aloud after curfew or the patrol harpies will eat you. Simple. And next time, go to the next nearest cabin, please."