The Woes of the Sun || Lilly

[Nico di Angelo]

Nico always ended up in Hades cabin. It was his sanctuary at Camp Olympus. The only people who came in the cabin were his siblings, Lord Hermes, and rarely Brie. It was a place where Nico knew he would always be accepted, regardless of his oddities and the occasional mental flip out. It was a haven and it smelled like dirt and McDonald's, at least to him. That's what he associated with the dead and darkness.

The blinds were drawn and the door was shut, but Nico still tucked his head under the comforter on his bed. It had been a mistake to let himself go outside during the day, because now he felt ill because of it. He'd shucked his shoes and jeans when he'd returned to his cabin and lay in his shirt and boxers, trying for all the world to connect back with the shadows. Normally he was fine after a day in the sun, but lately... Well. Nico wasn't completely himself recently.

The brunet groaned and rolled onto his side, poking his head out from under his blankets. "Lilly?" he called out quietly. "Do you have any water?" Nico had no idea if his sister was in the cabin -he didn't make it a point to keep tabs on her. She was his sister, yes, but she was completely capable of taking care of herself and didn't need him. (He thought she could beat the tar out of someone just with her parasol alone, after all.)

Nico threw the comforter over his head again and let out a soft sigh, closing his eyes. He hoped Lilly was there and that she had water, because the youngest di Angelo wasn't sure he'd be able to make it to the kitchens or the camp store to get himself some water, not even with shadow travel.

[Lillian Scott]

Lilly was dreaming. In her dream, she was walking up a broken stone path, nothing but darkness on both sides. Instead of feeling relieved, however, Lilly felt uneasy- this darkness wasn’t her friend. If anything, it was too dark, even for a daughter of Hades. She kept going, however, until the path broke off- and for reasons she could not explain, she felt a deep, gut-wrenching feeling of despair.

”Lilly?”

Behind her partition, the red-head sat up straight, her eyes wide as the struggled to make sense of her surroundings. Finding herself once again in camp, tangled up in her sheets, she let out an audible sigh. Recalling her name being spoken, she looked toward Nico’s bed- he was the only one who would call out to her, and her confusion and fear immediately gave way to sisterly concern. “Yes?”

"Do you have any water?"

Water? Lilly looked around at her possessions, strewn on the floor behind her wooden room divider. Spotting a bottle of water half under the bed, she stretched her arm down to pick it up before extracting herself from her covers and heading over to her brother. “Here,” she offered, tilting her head as she took him in. She frowned at him, worry etched into her pale face. “Nico, are you all right?” Without asking, she sat on the edge of his bed. In her life before Midas, Lilly had several siblings, older and younger, though she had been the only girl. She was used to taking care of them, but she had to admit- Nico usually took care of himself. To have him need her, for once, was alarming at best.

[Nico di Angelo]

Nico was overwhelmed with thankfulness when he heard Lilly respond. Thank Hades. That was the only god Nico would ever thank, especially in this kind of situation. The brunet made himself sit up when he heard his sister moving around. His sister, the only girl he'd never mistaken for Bianca. It was impossible; her mane of hair made her stand out compared to the darker di Angelos.

The son of Hades reached out and accepted the water from Lilly, uncapping it and relishing in it as he swallowed it. He sighed when he was done drinking from the bottle and quietly twisted the cap back on, not looking at Lilly as he fidgeted with the plastic bottle. He felt a bit childish for calling on her like he had but, while the water made him feel a bit better, Nico still severely regretted going outside when he did.

"Nico, are you all right?"

The teenager flushed a bit and picked at the wrapper on the bottle. He really didn't want to admit that he was feeling under the weather. He'd survived the Titan War and suddenly some sunlight was getting the best of him? (Firmly ignoring the reason he'd been outside, of course. Because if he acknowledged that, he'd have to acknowledge that maybe it wasn't the sun at all making him feel ill and more the fact that he'd been having flashbacks so bad he'd barely managed to get to the camp store for some ambrosia.)

Nico continued to fidget but said quietly, "I'm not feeling well." His full body flinch after those words emphasized how hard it had been for him to actually say those things. "Sun's got me down a bit," he tacked on at the end weakly, grimacing at the bottle of water.