We've all got bruises. (Leico)

Capture the flag

Nico felt low. No, lower than low. He felt like he was back in that pit, so far down he thought he'd never see the sunlight. He thanked whatever gods existed that Leo didn't push him for information, and he lay awake for hours, until the sun came up. He got maybe 20 minutes of sleep, tops.

He heard Leo get up and start to move around, before eventually slamming the door to go to breakfast.

The moment he did, Nico flew up, and roughly changed the gauze around his cuts. They weren't bleeding anymore, and had started to close up already. For some reason, Nico had always healed fast. Still, better to be safe than sorry. He dressed quickly in the same clothes he usually wore and hurried to breakfast, not wanting Hazel to worry, his bag around his shoulder as usual.

He sat down with a small bowl of cereal, avoiding Leo's eyes.

"So, what do we do on weekends here?" he asked. For some reason, this made everyone start laughing, and Hazel fanned herself in that way she did when she was scandalized.

"They play these...games at night," she explained, and Piper snorted in laughter.

"Understatement of the century, Hazel." She turned to Nico. "We play intense here, Nico. It's amazing fun, I promise!"

Frank blushed. "If you call stripping fun."

Percy spit his blue soda all over Jason's shirt in laughter.

"Stripping?!" Nico spluttered.

"Not like that!" Annabeth laughed.

"We've all known each other for years. We just play regular games like monopoly, Connect Four, Go-fish, but with a little...twist."

Jason leaned over to him. "It's not always strip games," he assured him. "That's just Piper's favorite. Girl can work magic, I swear. She can convince you to do anything." Piper laughed and threw her arm around his shoulders.

"But in the morning, we play war games." Reyna stated plainly, flipping her dark braid over her shoulder. "It gets out our aggression, or something."

"Really? What kind?" Nico asked, interested.

"Usually Capture the Flag or extreme dodgeball," Percy said, still bursting into occasional giggling fits. He swung his arms out in glee, and knocked the bottle of maple syrup over, onto Leo's hands.

"Nice, Jackson!" Leo tried in vain to scrape off the stickiness, and it only made Percy laugh harder. Nico realized with a start that he really liked Percy's laugh.

Rachel took a bite of her eggs before gesturing to her orange arm band. "Derollaneems," she said, mouth full.

"Come again?"

She swallowed. "I said we're all in teams. Orange and purple."

"Annabeth, Leo, Piper and I are on the orange side. Frank, Hazel, Percy, Reyna, and Jason are purple. Now that we have you, though, we should be even."

The bell rang. "Go to the first arena." Reyna whispered. Nico sighed in relief.

When he got there, he stood awkwardly beside Leo, Rachel, and two brothers who wouldn't stop trying to tie his shoes together. Their captain was Annabeth, and she was a pretty good strategist. Nico grasped the basic rules.

Each team fought to find the other one's flag. Students had fake plastic swords, spears, and arrows, although Annabeth warned them that getting hit with one stung. "Clarisse and her siblings are on the purple team today, so watch out. They fight dirty." Everyone made agreeing sounds. Nico didn't know the La Rue's well, but even he knew they didn't take opposition kindly.