Chapter Text
NICO’S POV
All Nico wanted to do was go play outside. He wanted to climb the trees and run around freely, but of course his father wouldn't let him.
“ It’s way too dangerous, what if you hurt yourself? Just play in the garden where the guards can see you!” He said to Nico. Why couldn’t he understand that Nico wanted to be independent! He was already eight for god's sake!
“Why can’t you just let me outside for once!” Nico screamed at his father.
Hades adopted a stern look on his face and said to Nico, “No. Go to your room now, I will not tolerate this kind behavior.” Nico rolled his eyes, but still went to his room. Little did his father know that he wouldn’t stay in the room.
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After Nico finally got to his room he started to think of a plan to escape the castle. He didn’t want to run away forever, he would still come back after a little bit. He never got to go outside due to the “dangers of the world” as his father once said before, so he only wanted to explore.
Nico still didn’t understand this fathers reason for not letting him outside. He wouldn't get hurt, he knew how to be careful. His father was just a little dramatic sometimes, Nico could handle the small amount of danger. His father had even started to train Nico with a sword so he could protect himself. Why would he try to teach Nico how to protect himself if he just trapped Nico in the castle where no danger could get to him?
Yes, he got to go to the garden, but that was boring. It was filled with a bunch of his stepmother’s plants and a couple benches, but that wasn’t fun, especially when almost all the guards were watching him, or even worse, when his stepmother Persephone was watching him. If she was out there, then all Nico could do was stare at the plants. She didn’t want him hurting her “precious babies” she would say. The garden was also still technically on the castle grounds, so he never really got outside. That was Nico’s logic at least.
Wait, the garden! Nico thought. If you looked outside the window in Nico’s room, you could see the garden. Along the castle walls were a bunch of different bushes, so if jumped out of his second story room, his fall would have a cushion to it. There was one problem though, the guards. Nico couldn’t exactly see where they were, which was a safety measure. The guards weren’t in plain sight, so if someone tried to break in, they would think they wouldn’t get caught.
“Stupid guards,” Nico said to himself, “This would be so much easier if father just let me go outside.” Nico rolled his eyes at no one.
Nico wasn’t really a brave person, he typically tried to just stay away from the scary stuff. Father would deal with it anyways. Now though, he needed to be brave. Nico unlocked his window slowly and opened it all the way, then he climbed onto the window seal. Nico then made the mistake of looking down, which from his point of view, showed the bushes being way too far down for Nico’s liking. Nico closed his eyes and fell forward.
When Nico finally opened his eyes again, all he saw was a bunch of leaves right in his face, plus some roses.
Oh no.
Below Nico’s window were some rose bushes, which meant that he fell right into the thorns from those roses. Nico tried to push himself up, but his hands went right through the branches of the bush, so he ended up falling a little lower into the bush, and ended up pricking himself on his hands.
Once he figured out how to get out of the bush, he stood up and checked his surroundings. He saw one of the guards searching for someone or something.
They probably heard my fall.
Nico started to walk through the garden, but as if he were only playing inside the garden. The guard spotted him walking and nodded in acknowledgment at him, Nico nodded back and started to walk again, but at a slow pace. Once he was right in front of the stone fence that surrounded the palace, he looked back and saw the guard. The guard was looking in all directions, and wasn’t focused on only Nico. Nico waited until the guard was facing the opposite direction to face the stone wall again. It was about 10 feet tall, but Nico already knew how he could climb it. There were a couple trees along the fence which he would climb up.
I’m pretty sure those trees would really help any people breaking into the castle Nico thought in his head. Why were the trees there?
Nico hugged one of the trees and started to slide up the tree trunk. Once Nico got all the way up to a tree branch he gripped onto it and pulled his body up. He had always been a fairly small boy, so this was easy for him to do.
He kept on climbing the tree and didn’t look back.
Once he got near the top of the tree where he couldn’t climb upwards anymore, he looked down at the ground below him. This time there weren't any bushes for him to fall on. Nico closed his eyes and jumped off the tree branch he was previously standing on.
WILL’S POV
CRASH!
Will’s head turned in the direction the noise was coming from. He couldn’t see the exact spot of the noise, so he went closer to the general area it came from.
Will kept walking until he saw a boy that looked about his age wearing all black lying on the ground.
“Ow!” The boy said.
“Are you okay?” Will asked politely. He inspected the boy and saw that he wasn’t in the best condition. The boy winced in pain as he tried to get up to speak to Will. “it’s okay stay there and I can get my first-aid kit!” The boy nodded slowly as Will walked away.
Why was that boy on the ground? I don’t even know his name so I can get his parents!
Will walked back to the spot he was sitting in and grabbed his first-aid kit out of his mini backpack. He zipped the backpack back up and walked towards the boy again.
The boy was now sitting up clutching his right knee in pain. Will noted in his mind to check that out.
“I’m back!”
The boy looked up at Will and just stared at him. Will smiled at the boy and sat so that he was level with the boy.
“Can I see that knee?” Will pointed towards the knee that the boy had his hands on, “Sure” the boy responded. He moved his hands and under them was a huge bruise and some tiny cuts. Will grabbed some sanitary wipes out of a small medic bag and cleaned the cuts. The boy was looking at in awe the whole time.
After this Will asked, “ Do you want a little ambrosia?”
He nodded and Will went back into to his bag and grabbed a small chunk of ambrosia considering it wasn’t too huge of an injury.
“Thanks.” The boy whispered. Will looked up to respond, but couldn’t get the words out. He now knew who this was. Since he was now closer to the boy, he could see that it was the prince. He had been healing the prince! Oh gods, I feel like I'm about to faint, Will thought, still staring dumbfoundedly at Nico.