How Icarus Fell From the Sun (a Solangelo fanfic)

aphrodite = fanfic writer. no criticism will be taken

After dinner, Will decided that the best medicine for Nico would be forcing him to participate in group activities, instead of letting him hide happily in the infirmary.

"Solace, please!" Nico begged. "I'd rather spend the next week in the infirmary than this!"

By this, Nico meant the nightly bonfire sing-along that Will was practically dragging him to.

Will's cabin usually led the sing along for the entire camp, and this was the first night since the battle with Gaea 3 days ago that Will had been able to attend. He was very clearly using this fact to gain pity from the Son of Hades, and as hard as he was trying not to let it, it worked.

This was also the first campfire since the Romans had left, and many campers were in low spirits, though a few seemed more comfortable, likely having still not trusted the Romans.

Will and Nico reached the Amphitheater, which was empty except for Austin, Kayla, and a few of Will's other siblings, all of whom were setting up the fire, and the marshmallows on sticks.

"Hey, Will." Kayla, shouted over at them from the crackling fire. It was currently orange, but Nico suspected that at 9, when everyone was there, it would turn purple, as he had heard it had been every day since- well, since Leo. He didn't like to think about it, he hated it, really, but his loss was still weighing heavily on the entire camp.

According to Jason, the first day no one had sang, choosing to sit together and share memories over s'mores instead. The second day they had just sat silently, and it was only the day before that Austin had attempted to rally everyone into a few songs.

Nico was still struggling under Will, but he grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him over to one of the logs on the ground.

Nico huffed, but he willingly sat, and wriggled out of Will's hand.

"I'll sit here, at the fire, next to you, Solace. But I will not sing." He glared.

"Fine, fine." Will laughed.

Other campers began to pack into the Amphitheater. After everything that had happened, it seemed strange that it was only early August. Camp would be continuing, almost as if nothing had happened, for another month before everyone would be leaving for school.

Nico knew he would have to stay. He didn't have a home, or a family, or school to attend. Will had always stayed at camp in the winters. Nico wondered why.

He watched Percy and Annabeth sit next to Jason and Piper, probably talking about something that happened on the Argo, or where they were going in September.

He saw Clarisse la Rue laughing, and clapping a tired Sherman Yang on the back.

He saw an excited looking Travis Stoll whispering to a confused Connor, clearly planning another summer prank.

As he had guessed, the fire was beginning to turn a light purple, which only darkened more as Nessa and Harley took their seats with the rest of their cabin, all of their eyes red and puffy.

Nico wondered why they were even there. He, of all people, knew that three days was not nearly enough to grieve, and the camp fire sing alongs weren't mandatory. Perhaps they thought it would lift their spirits.

Finally, it was exactly 9 pm, and everyone, including Chiron, had sat down, and grabbed a marshmallow stick.

Kayla sat down on Will's other side, smiling, her red and green hair illuminated by the dark purple light.

Austin began strumming on his guitar, the beginnings of some song Nico didn't recognize.

Out of nowhere, Will jumped slightly, and Kayla laid her hand on his arm, looking concerned.

"You- you didn't hear that?" Will whispered, wide eyed. She shook her head gently, confusion in her eyes, as if she were afraid he would snap at any sudden movement.

Nico looked at him a bit more harshly, but just as confused, as he stood up, muttering a quick excuse.

"If you forced me into this, just to get out of it yourself-" Nico started.

"Oh, please, death boy. I'll be right back." Will laughed, humorlessly. Austin began the sing along just as he walked away.

***

Nico was royally pissed off. Will had dragged him out to the stupid campfire sing-along, only to leave before it even started. He was gone for almost 20 minutes, and Nico was left to watch the small, purple fire, listen to Leo's sniffling siblings, off key demigods, and wallow in his own self pity.

He couldn't help but continuously blame himself for Leo's death. He knew that Leo had been planning it, that he thought he would die either way, but Nico couldn't help but think that if he had stopped Octavian, if he had stopped the extra blast from hitting him...

Not that Nico didn't feel guilty, so to speak, about Octavian in general. Maybe he didn't care too much. Maybe he thought it was well deserved. But he did feel bad. Ish.

There was also the aspect of the way Leo's death had felt, and how different it was from when he felt his sister's death so long ago, or Luke's, or everyone else that had died only a few days before. He didn't want to give anyone false hope. He didn't want to give himself false hope. But it just felt wrong.

He hated thinking about it. He had been trying for four days to block the memory, the blame, any emotion, really, from his memory, just like he had before, but it was like he kept getting a STORAGE FULL notification from his brain. He managed to block it from his mind for a few days, but it kept coming back. He didn't know how much longer he could handle it.

The guilt from his sister's death- the guilt from letting her go, letting her leave- the guilt from the fact that she died trying to collect the only Greek god mythomagic figure he needed- had torn him apart. He had become a monster at 11 years old. He had almost done something terrible, all because he couldn't forget about it. He let the memory linger for too long, and it destroyed him. Life was much easier when spent ignoring the past.

Nico watched quietly, as the camp sang, and pretended that everything was normal. Even though the fire was a clear sign that nothing really was. Pipers eyes and nose were bright red, she had been crying again. Jason looked almost like an empty shell of a human. Annabeth looked grim, compared to how she had looked when he had talked to her and Percy. If Nico had to guess, Annabeth had seen Piper and Jason, and then felt guilty about her excitement from earlier.

One thing that Nico did enjoy about being ignored, is that he could be extremely observant and no one would notice. He saw people when they thought no one was looking, and weren't hiding behind their usual masks. He knew both Jason and Piper were putting a show on for the camp, but he could see that what had happened had affected them worse than anyone, except maybe poor little Harley.

When Will finally did come back, he was clearly shaky and out of it. Weirdly, Nico was compelled to talk to him about it.

"You good, Solace?" Nico frowned as Will shakily sat down during Down by the Aegean. "Gods, you're literally shaking. What happened?"

He didn't respond, and instead started straight at Nico, a far off look on his face.

"Hello? Earth to Will?" Nico waved his hand in front of his face. Nothing.

Seeing that he was unresponsive, Kayla furrowed her eyebrows, and tugged on Will's arm.

"S-sorry. I'm fine." He said, finally looking away from Nico.

Austin had just begun the next song, 'This Land is Minos's Land,' but he was interrupted by strange cloud of pink glitter.