☼ ᴾᴸᴱᴬˢᴱ ᵀᵁᴿᴺ ᵀᴴᴱ ᴸᴵᴳᴴᵀ ᴼᴺ ᵂᴴᴱᴺ ᴵᵀ ᴰᴵᴱˢ ☀ - Stri and Socks

Nico watched Sam carefully, a hint of red coloring his cheeks as he realized just how thoroughly he had managed to shatter the moment. That hadn’t been his intent, but now this room would always be the room he ruined. Fantastic.
“I just… was going to say that I didn’t let you talk,” he murmured after a long moment. “Which wasn’t very fair of me, and I guess… I wanted to give you a chance to say whatever you were going to say. Before… you know.” He wasn’t sure what he was doing. He didn’t… he couldn’t get attached to anyone like that, not now. Not when he was in danger of dying at almost any moment. He couldn’t put someone through that.
“I just mean… yeah, I care about you. A lot. And my heart tends to do things that don’t make a lot of sense, and I guess I wish you didn’t have a way to know that, but… I won’t deny it now that it’s out there. And you never got a chance to say your piece about it.” Did he expect Sam to row the boat to shore and kick him off and tell him to find his own way back to the living room? Not exactly, but the fear was there, if only in the back of his mind.

“Maybe you can find out even if your heart doesn’t beat,” Nico replied quietly, searching Sam’s expression. “I mean… your heart is still there, even if it’s not beating.” Was that comforting, or did it just make him sound stupid? He was messing this all up.
His own hand found his ring and began subconsciously twisting it around his finger. He hadn’t yet considered that the ring could be dangerous to Sam. There was a lot about falling for a vampire that he hadn’t thought about yet, mainly because he refused to admit to himself that he was falling for a vampire.
“I’d like to see what happens,” he added after a long moment, forcing himself to smile. “I will… warn you, though… it wasn’t very fair of me to become friends with you. There’s… a lot going on in my world, and chances are pretty high I’m going to die fairly soon, and I don’t… I didn’t want to hurt anyone. But if I live… then maybe we can see where things go.” It wasn’t quite a promise, but it was as close as he could come given the circumstances.
“Thank you for not being upset with me,” he added quietly, voice small. He had expected the worst. And that… that wasn’t what he had gotten.

“What?” Nico asked, voice a little bit shocked. “No, I… I won’t regret that. Your friendship has meant a lot to me, even if we haven’t really been friends for that long, and… I really enjoy seeing you around and doing rooms with you. I just… I don’t want to hurt anyone.” His voice was small as he admitted it, and he couldn’t quite look at Sam. Had Sam experienced loss in his life before? Did he know what it was like to lose someone he cared about? Nico hoped he didn’t. He hoped he wouldn’t ever have to. But… well, Sam was a vampire. It sort of went with the territory. He outlived people.
It was a big promise for Sam to make, and Nico wasn’t sure he could accept it. If it were anyone else, he would have told them not to make promises they couldn’t keep. But… for some reason he didn’t want to tell Sam that.
“Yeah, of course,” he returned, following Sam out of the boat. He dusted himself off, though he didn’t need to, sinking his bare feet into the soft grass and mud.
He followed, giving a small smile. He had expected to unintentionally ruin the whole moment. Somehow, he hadn’t.

Nico appeared, pacing the room. He didn’t have the glowing purple scepter anymore. That had been destroyed. It was odd, almost, blinking in without it. As much as he hated it, as he hated what he’d gone through to get it… he’d had it for so many blinks now. It wasn’t that much time in his world, but it was all the time he had known Sam. All of the time he had known Myrnin. Still… it felt as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Someone was going to blink in soon, Nico figured, though he didn’t know who to expect. His shoulders slumped as he recalled his last blink. It had been a nice moment, and he’d ruined it. He should’ve just… kept his mouth closed for a little while longer. Maybe Sam hated him for bringing it up. Maybe the entire room was tainted for him now. Nico groaned, sliding down the wall and resting his forehead against his knees. The last thing he wanted was to lose a friend, especially in such a stupid, easily preventable way. The truth was, though, that he hadn’t stopped thinking about it since he’d blinked back. If he had to guess… it was probably on Sam’s mind too.

Nico looked up, a small smile pulling at his lips of his own volition. He almost certainly hadn’t intended it. Almost. It disappeared almost immediately as he remembered how he’d ruined the last room, though. At least Sam didn’t seem… upset…
“We closed the Doors of Death,” he replied, shrugging a little. “I guess… that’s a good thing.” Had he even explained what the Doors of Death were? Well… if he hadn’t, he figured Sam would probably ask. Probably.
“What about you?” he added after a few moments, “Have you figured out… you know?” And there was another thing he probably shouldn’t have mentioned. That was a great way to talk to the boy you may or may not like. ‘Hey, remember when I told you I like you but I don’t actually want to date you, and remember how you bit me immediately after and almost killed me, and oh, by the way, have you figured out if you’re homeless yet?’ He groaned internally. There was probably a reason he didn’t have friends back in his world.

“Oh,” Nico replied, blushing a little bit. He thought he had explained that to Sam, but it seemed he hadn’t. Right… he frowned, unsure if Sam wanted to hear. Especially since it seemed to sort of apply to vampires as well…
“The Doors of Death keep the dead in the Underworld. With them open… it means monsters can come back a lot more easily, and… well, it means that all sorts of malevolent spirits were set free on our world. They caused a lot of chaos, and… I know what it’s like to be manipulated by those kinds of spirits. With the Doors closed, they can’t get out.” Did vampires count? He didn’t know. They seemed to defeat death by bypassing the Underworld entirely. So… it wasn’t like he was saying he helped close the only way for vampires to be created.
“I’m glad,” he added after a long moment. “That you have somewhere to stay, I mean. And… I think they’d probably tell you if you were imposing.” At least… he hoped the people Sam had mentioned would be nice enough to tell him. He forced a small smile, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“Where are you going?” he asked, tilting his head. “I mean… where are they travelling?”

Nico was grateful Sam hadn’t gotten upset about the Doors of Death closing. It was… well, it was further proof that he was overthinking this whole thing. Sam was his friend. Sam wouldn’t mind the things Nico had to do in order to save his world, right? A bit of doubt flickered across his expression. As much as he liked spending time with Sam, he still felt like there were probably things they needed to talk about. The only issue was that he didn’t want to ruin yet another room by bringing up the bad things.
He pushed the thought away, turning his attention towards Sam.
“Time machine and space ship?” he asked after a moment, tilting his head. “That sounds pretty cool. Are you going anywhere specific or just… everywhere?” Nico was pretty certain that time travel didn’t exist in his world, except in the context of the Lotus Hotel. Wherever Sam was going… it probably wasn’t somewhere Nico had ever heard of.
“If you end up anywhere cool, you should tell me about it.” There… that was at least something they could talk about in future blinks if they didn’t want to think about the complicated stuff.

“I’m jealous,” Nico replied, a small smile crossing his lips. He didn’t sound particularly jealous, though it did seem like a cool opportunity. “Maybe that’s just because I like history, though.” Nico’s head tilted to regard Sam at a slightly different angle. “I don’t… actually know what subjects you like. If it’s not history… I guess I hope you learn something cool anyway.” Part of him wished he could just… abandon everything he had to do in his world in order to go spend time with Sam, to travel worlds and cross time periods… he knew it was impossible, but he didn’t want it to be. He also knew that even if it was possible, he couldn’t just abandon his world like that.
Sam’s questions caught him off guard. How did he describe his world? How did he describe himself? He didn’t actually know. He sighed, then forced himself to look back up again.
“My world is… hard to explain,” he murmured after a moment, giving a soft shrug. “If you asked anyone in my world who didn’t know about Camp Half-Blood to describe my world, I think they’d come to a very different conclusion.” As for what he liked… he stared at the ground. He didn’t know. He hadn’t had time to enjoy anything or pick up a hobby for… well, for the last four years. Hopefully he’d have time soon, if he didn’t die.

“Maybe you’ll end up liking it more than you thought,” Nico returned, giving Sam a tired smile. “There’s a lot of it out there. It’s not nearly as stuffy as they make it seem in books.” Then again, almost everything that appeared in books felt stuffy to Nico. Maybe he was just bad at reading. He shook his head of the thought. He found tablets and inscriptions from the ancients fascinating. It probably had more to do with what he was capable of reading than it did with the actual content of what he was reading.
“Art,” Nico echoed, considering it for a long moment. “I used to doodle a lot, when I was at school. The teachers would always get really mad at me, because they thought I wasn’t focusing, so they told me not to. Which… made it harder to focus, but… doodling was fun.” He glanced up at Sam, then tilted his head a little. “I… know that art is really private for some people, but if you ever wanted to show me any…” he left the offer open, hanging in the air. He didn’t know how good Sam was, but… well, Nico’s bar was low. And as far as he was concerned, it was good as long as Sam had a good time making it.
“I haven’t really had time for hobbies,” he admitted softly, something darker crossing his expression for just a moment. “I might, after the war, though. I hope.”
He was silent for a long time, looking around the room as he tried to figure out what to do to pass the time. He didn’t know if Sam wanted to keep talking, or if he wanted to do a room…
“I could show you more swordsmanship, if you wanted.”

Nico managed a small smile, nodding a bit at Sam’s response. It struck him sometimes how little he knew about certain people in the House. He didn’t know that Sam did art, but it was just because he had never seen him do it. There were no casual opportunities for him to look over and see Sam on his own, doodling in the corner of a notebook or anything. The moments when he wished for a normal life were fairly rare, but now was one of them. He wished he could go to school and sit at a desk next to Sam and just… watch him doodle instead of paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying, because it was probably a lot less interesting than Sam and his drawings.
“Thanks,” Nico replied, though it wasn’t clear exactly what he was thanking Sam for. Perhaps it was agreeing to showing him his art. Perhaps it was Sam’s wish for Nico to be able to find hobbies. Perhaps it was all of that and more.
“Yeah, of course,” he added, dusting off his pants and standing up just moments later. “I didn’t really get the chance to teach you that much, and… maybe you’ll need a sword at some point. Or maybe it’s just fun. Either way.”

“I really don’t know why swords went out of style,” Nico said with a shrug, shifting his from one hand to the other with practiced ease. He couldn’t help but wonder if swords needed to be balanced differently for vampires because of their strength. He doubted it, but… it was possible. “If you’re going to be going to the past, you might as well be able to defend yourself with the right weapons,” he added, the beginnings of a grin forming on his lips.
“Here,” he said, passing the sword to Sam. “We should probably brush up on what I showed you last time. The right positions and all of that. Then I can show you a couple of classic attacks you can use. If you’re travelling back in time, your opponent might be armed, so we’ll start there. Maybe next time we can look at how to attack an unarmed opponent or an opponent armed with an unequal weapon like a gun or something.”
Nico immediately got into the stance he had shown Sam last time, trying to demonstrate what his form should look like.
“Good form is half the battle,” he told Sam after a moment, dipping his head.

Nico wasn’t really sure he counted as “cool.” He could use a sword because he needed to in order to survive. He was used to having to fight tooth and nail for his survival, and if he could use something to help him do that? He was going to take advantage of that as best he could. It did help that his weapon in particular looked cool. Celestial Bronze looked cooler than not having a sword at all, but there was almost nothing that could beat Stygian Iron in the looking cool factor.
“Almost,” Nico replied, glancing at Sam for a long moment before he demonstrated the form with his own body, then straightened back up to appraise Sam. He stepped forward, very gently adjusting the way Sam was holding the sword, then nudging Sam’s leg with his foot to get it in the right position. “You’re strong enough that it would be hard for someone to knock you off balance anyway, but you can’t always assume you’re going to be fighting someone weaker than you. Notice how much more stable that feels?”
He backed off a few moments later, then gave a small nod. “It’d be more difficult for your average human, but you can go fast, and I can shadow travel, so either of us could probably disarm someone with a gun if we timed it right.”

Nico didn’t mean to upset Sam by mentioning that he wasn’t human, it was just that he hadn’t really considered that Sam might be upset by such a reminder. It was true – he wasn’t human. Nico didn’t think it was entirely a bad thing, it was just… a thing. And Nico couldn’t forget it, because every time he looked at Sam, it was incredibly clear that he had an aura of death around him. Not the same as the dying, not the same as the dead. But not the same as the living, either.
“Good,” he said after a moment, giving a satisfied nod. “That stance will serve you well for now. Make sure you don’t let yourself be knocked down.” He took a step back, appraising for another moment before meeting Sam’s gaze.
“What would you do if there was an opponent in front of you right now? One that would be safer to attack first instead of waiting for them to set the tone and pace of the fight?” Even with limited combat experience, Nico expected Sam to try to attack the imaginary person in front of him. Nico would be watching his footwork, paying attention to that before he paid attention to the rest of it. Sam’s superstrength and speed would serve him well, but eventually he’d meet an opponent with similar skills. If he didn’t have the right foundation for defense… Nico’s expression set and he gave Sam a firm nod. “Don’t be afraid,” he added, in case Sam was nervous about attacking the air.

Nico noticed. It wasn’t hard to tell that Sam was holding back, trying to act like something he wasn’t. Nico couldn’t blame him – he knew how Sam felt about being a vampire, knew he probably wouldn’t want to use the skills that gave him. It would kill him in a fight, even if he was fighting a human. They would notice the stiffness, the way he moved in awkward jolts instead of fluid motion. They would take advantage. Nico closed his eyes for a long moment, trying to figure out how to tell him.
The thing was… Nico understood. He knew what it was like to be afraid of himself, to want to seem normal, to try to fight and act like he was normal. But in a fight, you had to use every weapon you had at your disposal. You couldn’t hide who you were or what you could do, because then half your attention was dedicated to that instead of paying attention only to the enemy.
“Good,” he said after a moment, crossing his arms over his chest, “except you can’t be afraid of yourself. I’m not asking you to love everything about what you are, because that… would be hypocritical, but… in a fight, you can’t be afraid of it. If you’re fighting your instincts, that means you have two battles on your hands, not just one, and if your opponent’s been in battle before, they’ll find a way to take advantage of that.”