Nico felt a tear slip out and he quickly wiped it away, not wanting anyone to see.

Suddenly, memories flashed through his mind of times he'd cried in front of people who couldn't care less.

His breath hitched sharply, and he turned away from his friends anxiously. They wanted to reach out and hug him, but knew Nico wasn't one for physical touch. Another part of Nico's persona that he pushed. Physical touch was his love language, but he felt the need to isolate himself to protect everyone. To rationalize the walls he'd put up.

"Nico..." Hazel said gently behind him. "It's okay."

"It's not..." Nico said, "Bianca would've... She would've never loved me this way."

"Well, I'm not Bianca," Hazel assured, touching Nico's shoulder despite him pulling away. "And Bianca would love her brother just as much as I do, no matter what. I don't care that you're gay."

"Yeah, man," Percy piped up. "Who cares? You like dudes. Dudes are hot."

Jason lifted an eyebrow at Percy, thinking, That's gay of you to say, dude. Percy could almost read his mind and shrugged.

Reyna puffed out her chest and walked around Hazel and Nico, finding herself facing Nico instead of his back. "Don't you dare turn your back on family, because we would never turn our backs on you."

Before Nico could respond, Reyna engulfed him in a firm hug. At first Nico gasped, shocked, but then he slowly wrapped his arms around her too. He started crying into her shoulder shamelessly. Hazel joined the hug, wrapped her arms around him, and before you knew it, everyone was giving him a group hug.

"I hate you guys," Nico mumbled, "You suck."

"Yeah, yeah," Reyna replied. "Love you, too, Ghost King."