When they pulled up to the gas station, Leo was put on gas pumping duty.

Really, he shouldn't have a problem with it. Unfortunately, he had to get gas for the delivery car all the time at work. He'd worked on cars plenty when he had the opportunity, absolutely dominating any auto and shop classes. The Hephaestus cabin smelled like machine grease and had about a thousand different things Leo wanted to get his hands on.

Basically, he had no problem getting his hands dirty with machines. Gas pumps were another story, because humans were unpredictable and put their gross, grubby hands all over the pump. When he was little and tried to eat this-and-that from gods-know-where, his mom would take it and ask "do you know where that's been?". Only with gas station pumps, you really don't know where that's been.

Leo tried explaining this to Nico and Piper, then flat out telling them he wasn't doing it. They seemed to understand his issue well enough.

So Leo was put on gas pumping duty. Meanwhile, Piper went in for the restroom, and Nico took out his bag, counting out some change. Only this wasn't dimes and quarters, this looked-gold, like those rare dollar coins, only shinier.

"Hey, can you get me some chips while you're in there?" Leo asked. "They might think you're weird for paying with those, but money's money, right?"

"I'm not going in," Nico replied. "I'm going to the carwash to send an Iris message."

Leo knew what an Iris message was; there was a particularly weird part in the video where Apollo was lounging by the pool, singing some kind of song about 'Iris Message Me, Beep Me, If You Wanna Reach Me'. The only thing Leo didn't know was how to actually do one.

Luckily, the gas pump just finished, and Leo put everything up. He locked the car up, then started after Nico.

"Here, hold this up," Nico instructed, handing Leo the hose. Nico put in a couple quarters, and the hose started to spray. And Leo stood there like a dunce, seeing as they hadn't brought the car over here. "The angle is all wrong, it's like..." Nico put his hands over Leo's for a moment, readjusting the position of the water, probably to form a rainbow from what Leo had seen in the rainbow-covered video. That, or they were summoning a gay pride parade.

Leo felt a weird sort of jolt at the Son of Hades's touch-probably because his hands were colder than most. His nails were painted a chipping black, which Leo hadn't noticed until now. Nico wasn't looking at him, instead focused on the spray position relative to the sun, and-

"Got it," he said, taking out one of his gold coins and backing away a step or two. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering." He tossed the coin through the spray, which Leo thought would just make one wet coin plink on the other side, though it didn't. Instead, it dissolved into the colors of the spray, something so stunning Leo almost dropped the hose.

"Gleeson Hedge," Nico's determined tone grounded Leo back down to reality. The water's display shifted to show a satyr who looked...pretty much exactly as Leo expected a satyr to look like. Short and stocky, like Phil from the Disney Hercules movie. He was even trying to flirt with a nymph, though she looked thoroughly uninterested--Leo had been on the receiving end of that look too many times to count.

"Oh, hey!" Hedge jumped once he noticed the Iris Message--Leo wondered what it looked like from his end, a couple of kids loitering at a car wash. "Campers! What are you cupcakes up to?"

Cupcakes? Leo glanced over at Nico, for once suppressing a grin; the last thing he imagined Nico being called was cupcake. Not that he so favored the nickname himself.

Other than a slight frown tugging at his lips--so his usual scowl--Nico ignored this. "We have an important mission. This is Leo," he gestured to Leo, who waved. "I'm Nico, and--"

"Hi!" Piper called, making them jump. "Good idea, letting him know we're coming up. Did you tell him what was going on?"

"What's going on?" Hedge asked. He picked up a wooden club from the ground--it looked like a baseball bat, though it wasn't sanded down or anything, so it still had little twigs and leaves protruding from it. "Is there a monster that needs a beat-down?"

"No," Nico said bluntly. "We just need your music. I just wanted to let you know we were coming, and ask for a meeting place."

"Oh," Hedge's face fell. "Well...I guess if you just need any old satyr's music...we could meet at the canal..." he muttered.

"Oh, good!" Piper replied, startling Leo as her voice went a little higher than her usual register. "Because Chiron told us you were the best satyr we could find--good with reed pipes and wooden clubs. We need your music to open a passageway to the Underworld, and if any monster comes out to attack, we'll definitely need some strength on our side."

Leo thought Piper was laying it on pretty thick, though Hedge seemed to be eating it up. She wasn't using Charmspeak--if she was, Leo could probably tell if he suddenly became Hedge's number one fan when he didn't even know the guy. It seemed like she was just being nice, which Nico hadn't seemed to have considered.

"Yeah," Hedge nodded along. "Yeah, that's right. I could protect you cupcakes, no problem. I'll be in the woods by the Rideau Canal, shouldn't be hard to find. When do you think you're getting here, tonight?"

"Tomorrow morning," Nico said. "With the state of traffic and distance, it'd be better to start tomorrow before noon, in the--" his voice faltered as he glanced at the sky, then back down. "Daylight."

Indeed, as Leo looked up, he could see it was shaping up to be a particularly gloomy day. He wasn't sure how, provided Apollo and the sun chariot were effectively kidnapped, the sun was still making its rounds in the sky. He wasn't sure he wanted to ask, though he could tell by the look of things this dimly lit day wouldn't last long.

Hedge didn't seem to notice. "Alright, see you--when I--reed pipes--" the image seemed to glitch out, disappearing completely moments before the water abruptly shut off.

The three demigods stood in silence for a moment, glancing at each other, taking in what they just saw.

"It's already happening, then," Piper said. "The message cut out because there wasn't enough sunlight. The TV in the gas station--the weather guy said something about how the sun was extremely distant, and as a result, well...everything's dim and cold."

Nico nodded. "I have a feeling of what Olympus is using as a back-up plan, and I don't like it. Come on--let's keep going."

------

Leo finally parked the car with a huff, exhaustion thoroughly aching his bones after the long drive. With Piper's directions via a map she found at a rest station, they'd managed to find a hotel with some vacancy.

It wasn't a pretty place--in fact, Leo noticed Piper trying not to grimace at the old, subtly moldy walls--but Leo had stayed in worse places. He supposed they all had at one point or another, but at least here they were guaranteed a bed.

After several failed attempts with the key card that left Leo cursing, he finally managed to get the door open and stumbled onto a bed with a sigh.

"So," Piper started, shuffling from foot to foot. "What's the sleeping arrangements? I don't wanna inconvenience anyone, but I'm not sharing a bed with either of you." Leo fixed her a confused look, but she continued. "No offense, just a girl thing."

"Oh," Leo frowned a little at the thought. Of course he wanted her to be comfortable, but was there something about him or Nico that unsettled her? Not that he was necessarily keen on sharing a bed with either of them--he didn't know them, not really. Then again, he'd shared beds with kids on night one in different foster homes, so he'd kinda become desensitized to the whole thing. "Whatever floats your boat, Beauty Queen. You can have the bed by the window. I'll sleep on the floor for all I care, and I don't even wanna know why this carpet feels wet."

Piper made a face, as she was about to take off her shoes, but decided better of it. She smiled, partially exasperated, partially humorous--Leo liked the look on her, like they had some kind of inside joke. "Well, I'm gonna take a shower. Try not to scream too loud if you see a spider while I'm gone."

Leo laughed softly as she left, grabbing for the TV remote. He noticed Nico sitting on the other bed, seeming as far from him as possible. He frowned, feeling a string of tension coiling within him to that spot six feet away, the feeling stretched. Over the years, while he hadn't quite mastered reading people, he could get a feel for surface emotions, even when people were trying to hide them. Nico, however, was nearly impossible to get a read on; he was either a numb husk, or he was an expert at hiding how he felt.

"Hey," Leo started. "So demigods can't have cell phones, but TV is still okay, right? I've never been attacked right after Saturday Night Live, but I don't wanna jinx it."

Nico shook his head. "No, TV is okay. Too much will turn you into a zombie, though." he furrowed his brows. "Well, zombie adjacent."

That dismissal definitely interested Leo--Nico had mentioned summoning skeletons, but zombies? That was cool--and scary. Could they bite? They could probably be super helpful in the Underworld. They'd be fine down there with Nico, for sure.

Leo turned on the TV, flipping through the channels with the speed of a madman--he'd always gotten complaints about that, but he knew what he wanted to watch and what he didn't.

"So, Piper..." Nico started. Leo turned the TV down--the volume was already low, though Leo barely heard the son of death.

"Yeah?" Leo asked, his interest piqued, rather because the subject was Piper or the asker was Nico, Leo didn't know.

"You two seem to get along well," Nico pointed out. "Are you still...interested in her?"

Leo paused. Was he? He hadn't really thought about it, not after visiting Hershey in the infirmary. Even if he hadn't harmed the pegasus, he knew his answer.

"No, I guess not," Leo admitted, nervously tinkering with the remote. The guide button wasn't working, so he disassembled the remote as he spoke. "I mean, she's cute, and funny and everything, but...I think I'd rather be her friend. For the quest's sake and in general." he paused, aligning the button back with the rest of the component--cheap piece of plastic and rubber--and started assembling it again. "It's kinda funny," he continued with a soft laugh. "I'm so used to being the one on the other end of the friend-zone--not that Piper would have ever liked me in a million years, but you know what I mean. I'm not usually the guy people...like, in that way."

His face flushed as he toggled with the remote, looking for something to do with his hands. What he'd said was true, but did he have to admit it? He sounded pathetic.

"I get that," Nico replied. Leo thought he was going to say more, but as the moment spanned on, he was silent. That was it.

The last thing Leo wanted was to force anything out of the guy, but come on, he was putting a piece of his heart on the table. He scooted a little closer on his bed, as if that made a difference when looking at how far Nico was on his own.

"How about you?" Leo asked. "Do you have some sort of tragic love story in your past?" He'd asked it as a joke, but as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he wished he could grab them and melt them in the palm of his hand. Being a demigod--knowing several years longer than Leo himself had known--he probably did have a sort of tragic love story. He'd probably met a girl--some daughter of Aphrodite like Piper, or one of those blond Athena kids. Hades, maybe some daughter of Poseidon, like Percy's secret sister that was killed in the war. Maybe that was another reason why Nico was so tense about Percy, or the idea of any children of the Big Three.

Nico just stared, blinking catlike, his body stiff as one of those gargoyles on old buildings. "No." he replied.

"Sorry," Leo started, panic crawling up from his rushing heart through his chest, up to his throat and out in his voice. "I mean, I thought we were just talking about girls and stuff, I didn't mean--I mean, being a demigod, I didn't think of any actual tragedies--I hardly think at all, really--"

"It's okay," Nico interjected. When Leo managed to meet his eyes again, he seemed surprised, scooting closer from his own bed. Only the spaces between the beds was between them now. "No one died...well, I've known a lot of people to die, but...not anyone I've...liked in that way..."

"Oh," Leo let out a shaky breath before nodding. "Yeah, okay, good...well, we just don't have to talk about that stuff anymore, then..."

Nico nodded. "Agreed. I apologize for bringing it up. I just didn't want it interfering on the quest. It's..."

Leo swallowed, watching Nico curiously as he was bathed in the white light of an infomercial. He seemed so...pale, and small, and tired. Leo couldn't help but wonder what Nico would be like as a regular kid in school. Other kids would probably still be put off by him, but he wasn't bad looking. He had one of those faces of a teen actor--the 'bad boy' some girls would have a thing for. Some sleep, a haircut, and some days in the sun, and Hades, Leo would probably ask for his number. Not really, of course. And not without the fear that Nico would shank him, either.

"It's...what?" Leo tried to prompt him.

Nico's lips quirked to the side, as if he were contemplating his words, or perhaps how to speak them gently. Then, his eyes met Leo's. Black. Leo thought his own eyes were pretty dark, but at least he could see the color. Nico's...it was just black, reflecting what little light danced around the small room. They were scary, and intense, and exciting, like when he first started sneaking out to drink with what little friends he'd had.

"It's inconvenient." Nico said simply. "I've seen many strong, brave people do weak, stupid things when they're in love. I think--"

Just then, the shower turned off, and Nico's voice faltered. Leo glanced towards the bathroom, then back at Nico, who shook his head. The son of Hades grew suddenly interested in the TV, and Leo instinctively turned it up a bit.

Just like that, the conversation was over, which was probably for the best.

---

Nico had made a pillow wall, because of course.

Piper was settled in the bed by the window, hugging one of her pillows before drifting off quickly. Leo rested on his left side for a moment, glancing at her every now and then. She was comforting, even though he knew even less about her than he did Nico. At least he knew they were in this together; with Nico, it was like he was in his own little world, and Leo had no choice but to hopelessly trail along.

After the moment spanned on too long, Leo started to feel like a creep, and he rolled over onto his right side. Where the pillow wall was. Of course.

Leo stared at the cold, bleach-white pile as his mind drifted back to one of his foster homes--was it the fourth? fifth? He'd lost count, tired and hopeless. In his room that he shared with two other boys, one decided to make a pillow fort. He could hear the laughter and chatter buzzing in his ears as if it were yesterday. Just a couple pillows and blankets stacked up to make a home more welcoming than the one they were in. It was...fun, for the first time in a while, to share a small space with these two.

That is, until their foster mom came in and yelled at them to quiet down.

He couldn't remember their names. He opened his eyes. His lashes were wet, and the pillows Nico had set up stood tall and prominent as ever.

Leo closed his eyes once more, imagining something better. The beach he'd seen at camp that remained unexplored, the Hephaestus cabin with all of its tools and materials itching for Leo's ideas, those magic plates that didn't have budget restrictions for food like they had now.

Maybe he could learn to ride a pegasus without harming it, once he had proper training.

Leo smiled a little at the thought. If he lived through this quest, he'd become the best pegasus rider ever known. The ladies would love it. And maybe Nico would think he's pretty cool, too.

He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Leo opened his eyes to see the same garden from the night before, only this time, night had fallen, and the once beautiful place had been torn apart. The columns had crumpled, the fountain slashed opened and emptied of water, the flowers dug up as if someone--or something--had attacked them in a wild frenzy.

Just as Leo started towards the wrecked garden, perhaps to investigate or see if anyone needed help, he heard a horrible scream.

The same woman from the last dream, Lady Leto, came running out from around the corner, where a the building behind the garden had been demolished as well. She clutched her still-swollen stomach, but surprisingly, she could run pretty quickly.

A moment later, a gigantic creature emerged from the ruins--a snake or a dragon of some kind, perhaps a hundred feet long and five times as wide as any human. It was like some kind of monster from a movie he would not be allowed to watch as a kid, only worse--the special effects on the amount of blood this creature had on its fangs was much too realistic.

"You will pay!" Leto yelled, grabbing one of the larger rocks from a destroyed column and throwing it at the beast. "On my life you will pay for what you did to Aurea!"

Leo tried to run forward to help--this woman shouldn't (and probably couldn't) fight off a beast this way--but he found himself unable to move, as if stuck in quicksand. Just then, a band of young women came charging out of the ruins, injured but fighting on. Although their weapons seemed to cause the creature little harm, they did distract it enough to turn away from Leto. Leto hesitated, a hand coming to her mouth to cover a sob, before she turned and ran far away into the woods.

The dream shifted, and Leo found himself sitting on a rocky cliffside. Immediately, the air felt calmer, more quiet and open. Someone was playing some kind of string instrument, like a ukulele; indeed, when Leo glanced to his right, he found himself to be sitting next to the god Apollo. He looked the same as he did in the orientation video--about seventeen years old, shoulder-length blond hair gleaming in the sun, a handsome face worthy of thousands of ancient statues.

"--need not do this, my son." a woman's voice was saying, and Leo turned to see Leto, aged not a day since her pregnancy. "Python has not bothered us since your infancy. He will remain at Mount Parnassus for the foreseeable future."

"The future in which it foresees!" Apollo hissed, halting the strumming of his instrument--was it some kind of mini-harp?--and turning towards his mother. "Mother, the beast tormented you for months. It tormented my sister and I from the moment we were born. I wish to establish a temple at Delphi, and I will die before I agree to stand down for it." He stood, grasping his mother's shoulders. She didn't look at him at first, worried eyes gazing towards the tree line just past the cliff.

"Trust in me," Apollo implored, his voice softer now. "I've practiced with my bow for many years now, and with it, I shall see the beast slain. I promise you."

Leto met her son's eyes, then. She opened her mouth to speak, though instead of words, she emitted a strangled yell in a stranger's voice.

Leo's eyes snapped open, heart thumping in his chest as he felt an icy hand around his wrist. It immediately calmed down, however, when he noticed it was Nico. Leo tapped the light on his watch, lighting up the small space in blue for a moment. The son of Hades had sat up, breathing heavily, pulling at his hair with his free hand. He locked eyes with Leo and looked down at how he'd grabbed Leo's wrist before jerking away, curling in on himself.

"What's going on?" Piper asked, sleep evident in her voice, though when Leo rolled over, he noticed the room had taken on the dim glow of her knife. Thinking back on it, with those reflexes, they should have given her the bed closest to the door.

"Nothing..." Nico managed shakily. "Just...just a nightmare...just go back to sleep..."

Piper nodded, hesitantly stashing her knife under her pillow before settling back down. "Let me know if you need anything, okay, Nico?"

"Okay," Nico replied. "Thanks, Piper...goodnight..."

A tense silence spanned the small room, but Leo didn't look away from the son of Hades. Leo sat up slowly, as if worried about scaring him off. Nico glanced at him, and though his face was hard to make out in the darkness, he could guess the guy was embarrassed.

"Sorry," he said shortly. "I didn't mean to just...grab you like that, I mean...I'm not used to having other people in my bed. I guess the new environment freaked me out a bit..."

Leo could hear the remnants of panic in his voice, and for a moment, he wanted to reach out and hold Nico's hand. He wondered what kind of nightmare could possibly scare a son of Hades, could possibly leave him waking up in a cold sweat like this.

"Don't sweat it, man," Leo replied. "I don't want you feeling like you can't...like you shouldn't..." he fumbled with his words. What the hell was he supposed to say to this guy? To comfort someone who probably didn't want to be comforted?

"What?" Nico prompted, his voice low but brimming with curiosity.

"I'm here," Leo settled with a sigh. "I'm here, Piper's here...you're not on this quest alone..."

Nico nodded, swallowing thickly. "I'm leading you both to your deaths." his voice cracked. "Nyx is known for mothering some of the most terrifying deities. Clearly, her son Hypnos is guarding the way, and if we succumb to his magic--which we will--we'll die--"

"We won't," Leo insisted. "We've got Piper's Charmspeak, and my fire, and your thing with raising the dead...which might be either easier or harder to do once we're actually in the Underworld, I'm not sure. Oh! And my toolbelt! We can't forget my awesome--"

Leo was cut off as Nico threw his arms around him in a hug, resting his head on his shoulder.

"Oh," Leo breathed, suddenly very aware of just how quickly his heart was racing. Nico's skin was still cold, but not as cold as before--his hair tickled Leo's neck, and he smelled good, like the ground after a heavy rainfall. He was also aware of the pillow from the pillow wall resting between them, and Leo had the sudden urge to set it on fire and toss it across the room, which seemed pretty weird and extreme.

Nico pulled away, and Leo could see him blink in the dark--he'd felt against his skin, for only a moment, that Nico had cried.

"I'm not usually a hugger," Nico said, as if he'd surprised himself.

"Okay," Leo replied dumbly.

"This didn't happen," Nico continued, his voice now cold.

"Okay," Leo said again, so stunned, he thinks that 'okay' might just be the only word he knows.

Nico huffed and laid back down, rolling back over and hogging the blankets.

Joy. Leo had comforted him, and now he was going to be angry about it.

Leo laid down as well, finding the pillow from earlier jammed uncomfortably against his shoulder. He huffed, picking it up and chucking it across the room, where it hit the wall with a soft thump.

Nico rolled over at that, his face inches from Leo's. His eyes narrowed. "What was that for?"

"It was uncomfortable," Leo whispered. "I can sleep on the floor at this point, I don't care, I'm just sick of the pillow wall."

"Don't worry about it," Nico shook his head. "Just...stay here and try to get some sleep..."

He rolled onto his back, and Leo could only see the outline of his profile. He sighed, rolling onto his back as well, stuck with staring up at the popcorn ceiling.

Several minutes rolled by in silence. Leo remembered the vision from his dream--the destroyed garden, the young women geared up for battle. What Nico had told him of the Battle of Manhattan, and how he seemed to know fifty times the amount of Greek things as Leo should know.

And he felt he should do something. His mother was always that way, wanting to help others. She used to make large meals to take to the neighbors, or kept the shop open late fixing things for people. She said that his father was a nice man, but somehow, Leo knew he wasn't the same. He was who Leo thought of when his thoughts strayed this way, when he thought about how fixing physical objects was a lot more straightforward than human emotions. Including--especially including--himself.

Leo reached his hand out and brushed the side of it against Nico's. Other than a tiny jolt, Nico didn't move, which surprised Leo. He moved further, his fingers tracing along the center of his palm before settling against Nico's, holding his hand in the loosest sense of the phrase. For every fraction of skin that touched Leo's, he felt sparks that made him feel as if he were on the back of a pegasus again.

And it was an odd thing, resting his hand over Nico di Angelo's. In a sense, it was as if he were formally resting with the boy in the darkness of a coffin. Nico said nothing, shifting only slightly, though his every movement caused Leo's heart to jump once more. Finally, finally he was getting to him. They could be...friends. It was different, more unnatural than how it was with Piper, but they could make it work.

Leo realized a moment later that he had been tapping Morse code with his thumb against Nico's hand. His mother had taught him that, though he only remembered a few phrases, which he instinctively tapped sometimes.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap, tap.

Hi.

Tap, tap. Pause. Slash. Pause. Tap, dash, tap, tap. Pause. Dash, dash, dash--

I lo--

Nope, that was embarrassing. He really needed to stop tapping out phrases without thinking in case someone else knew Morse code.

Nico tapped something back--a really long message, it seemed. After a moment, Leo realized Nico most likely didn't know Morse code, as he wasn't sending any tangible letters. He was just tapping. The thought made Leo smile, a soft laugh escaping him.

He tried to remember the letters he did know and sent a message along.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Dash, tap, dash, dash. Pause. Dash, dash, tap, tap, dash, dash. Pause. Slash. Pause. Dash, tap, dash, dash. Pause. Dash, dash, dash. Pause. Tap, tap, dash.

"Hey, you." Leo murmmured, feeling for a moment that he really did...something. Something cool, or witty, or special, like he'd told a cute girl one of his best jokes. Which was stupid, really, but it still made him smile to himself.

Nico let out a soft breath, tapping a reply, pausing at odd places as he tried to remember the pattern.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Dash, tap, dash, dash.

Hey.

Leo squeezed Nico's hand gently, and nothing more needed to be said. He thought back to his visions of camp that helped him fall asleep earlier. Only this time, Piper and Nico were there, and maybe Leo could teach Nico some morse code.

Leo could feel Nico continuing to tap softly against his hand as he drifted off.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Dash, tap, dash, dash.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Dash, tap, dash, dash.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Dash, tap, dash, dash.

Hey. Hey. Hey.