Leo could hear the pounding of his own heart, he felt Nico's heart beat steadily under his fingers. He pressed his friend closer in a hug, inhaling the soft scent of earth, musk and apples.
   "Are you okay?"
   "It's been two months Leo, I don't think I'm coming back." Nico exhaled and pushed Leo's hands away. "I'm not getting out of here."
   "You're trying... right?" Leo hated the knot in his stomach and the feeling of a tear lump in his throat.
   "Every day when she is away."
   "Do you even know who she is?"
   "All these questions." Nico chuckled. "I don't know her, or her freaky sister. All I know is that they are related to the sun in some way."
   "Artemis?"

   "No... they are older, I don't think they are gods." Nico whispered and turned away from Leo.
   Nico's back was muscular and naked. Leo forgot that Nico was in a constant state of shirtless-ness in their dreams. Nico was always flustered about it in the beginning but now he was used to it. The only new thing that could make Nico blush was the scars.
   Whip marks. Leo still thought that Nico was handsome, he was still one of his best friends.
   "Did you disobey?" Leo asked, he couldn't help it he had to know about these scars.
   "No, my lover thinks that it's hot when I bleed."

   "Do you-"
   "I don't want to talk about." Nico cut of, he had had a pokerface the whole conversation if you don't count the chuckle, now he looked furious and scared.
   "I will find a way to save you."
   Nico clawed at his arms and ribcage, he gripped his hair and pulled, pulling of a few strands of his beautiful black hair. Still with his back to Leo he started scratching at the whip marks, clawing them open leaving both his back and fingers red with blood. He tried to claw away his skin, melt with the shadow. When he turned around he was crying.
   "Don't save me. Leave me be." Leo was frozen, he could feel the connection breaking, he had to say it. Now or never.
   "I have to save you, Nico I lo-"

He woke up in the Hypnos's cabin. Clovis sat beside him half sleeping. The blond boy stared at him like he was some sort of new special pillow.
   "Zeus underpants, couldn't you control it longer? I barley got any time."
   "Yeah." Clovis yawned, it smelled like warm milk, "I tried."
   "Thanks. I'll be back." Leo said clapping Clovis on he shoulder but the boy was already asleep again.
   Leo exited the Hypnos's cabin and walked to the one that  Aphrodite 'owned', he needed someone who understood.
   As he walked he had to bit back the tears. Seeing Nico so bad sent shivers down his spine. He wanted nothing more than to have Nico back by his side. These past two months he had made a deal with Clovis so that he could talk with Nico. It wasn't everyday but it was at least three times a week and during those moments they grew stronger together. Leo always lending Nico a warm shoulder and his attention, Nico always gave him as many answers as he could.
   "Piper." He was openly sobbing by now and felt like a five year old child who just wanted a hug from his mother.
   He felt like Claude, his younger sibling, when he accidentally burned himself. He felt like Percy had when Annie broke up with him because she wanted to go and study at a university in New Rome and Percy wanted to stay and look for Nico.
   "Piper."
   "I'm here." she came up behind him and crushed him in a hug, she usually stayed closed when she knew Leo had a session with Clovis. She knew that Leo would hurt. "I'm here."

   "She hurts him, he has scars." Leo's knees gave away and together with Piper they sank towards the ground.
  "He's alive."
   "For how long?"
   He felt even worse and more lost than when Calypso had dumped him. Piper often discussed with him that he should be more heartbroken if he really had loved her, now he knew what heartbreak felt like, but it wasn't because someone he loved had ended it. It was because the only person he could fall for was held hostage, being taken advantage of, being beaten. And Leo couldn't do anything about it.

   "Until he can see you again."
   "I... I think I really like him."
   "I know." one of her hands stroked him over his curly brown hair.
   "I need to talk to him again."
   "Try again tonight? You know that he has to be asleep if it's going to work."
   "Can I be with you until then?"
   "No, repair boy," she said it with affection and not in that playful way that they use to say their nicknames in "we both know that you have a cabin to rule over, go talk with them. Lead them and when night comes, come to cabin one first, I shall wait for you there."
   "Why aren't we siblings?"

   "We are, just in every other way than in the blood." with that she kissed his cheek and then walked towards her own cabin.

ΨΨΨΨ

Nico passed the big room that only grew, it was hard to keep track on the time, even though it had gone two months in the real world it has been four months here. Time moved twice as fast and even though it sounded like nothing he was afraid of staying here for a long time. Six years here was three years in camp, that also meant that he would be older than all his friends. He totally ignored the part were he was from the 1940's.
   Why did Cupid snatch him away? Hadn't he faced Percy? Hadn't he talked and fallen in love with Will? After all these troubles and wishes things still went bad.
   The only thing that went good was that his punishment/lover only came every other day, she was well spent after their round yesterday. He hated her, but at the same time he actually started liking her. She was in this situation with him, she didn't really want to harm him and she tried to keep her distance. She tried to make things better for him but in the end, it was always she who destroyed him.
   During his days he would read, there weren't much else to do.
   He had read pretty much anything that already excited in the mansion. Now a days he would stumble upon new books, he had found one during lunch under his plate, he had found another one in the garden, it laid on a beautiful stone bench. He knew that it was a present, a you're-doing-great-keep-up-the-good-work-thing.
   The books were always different, one was about a boy who fell in love with an elf, or an elf-princess. The boy was a simple farmer and he accidentally fell into the world of magic, well mostly dragons but dragons are magic too.
   Another book was simply about the stars, teaching him about constellations, and how stars are created.

   Yet another could be about world war two.
   Normally the books would come once a week but the more he read the more used to it he became and soon two books could appear on a single day. When presents didn't come, the whip did. He never understood what he did wrong, he only knew that if his lover wasn't pleased a man would come. He shined like the sun itself but this man wasn't anything like Apollo. This sun god was ruthless and would gladly crack his whip upon Nico's bare back.
    Nico did start to understand this mansion and it's inhabitants. He had figured out who the silver and white goddess was, and after that it was even simpler. What he didn't do, was say it to the gods that ruled his life. He was scared that they would whip him, or come up with something even worse.
   He sank down on the big bed and decided to sleep. It was to cold in here, even to cold for the ever chilly son of Hades. It could have been that he only was allowed to keep a pair of cotton pants on, it could also be that the covers was easy blankets and not thick covers, like the ones they had back at camp.
   In camp he could always rely on the big, thick blankets that warmed your toes. He remembered the camp fires where everybody sang even though they were awful singers. He envied those that wasn't kidnapped but at the same time he was relieved. Better he, a nobody, to take this blow than one of the heroes.
   Before he fell asleep he thought about the dream with Leo. What did he want to say? Nico, I lo-
   This wasn't Doctor Who, Nico wasn't Rose Tyler. But after all these months and the only one who even cared to contact him, wasn't it natural to fall in love with that person? He and Leo could talk for hours, they have done it before, it worked as long as Clovis could concentrate. And hours of talking, hours of relying on a person, it made you love them.
   Now, more than ever, Nico wanted to go home.

The green fields, the lake, the big house. Everything was there. His home. It was weird that he never had said it out loud, he had never spoken of camp as his home. But now he did.
   The sun shined down on him and for once he knew it was Apollo who did the work for the sunshine wasn't harsh or deadly, it was warm and healing.
   Before Nico could think he ran to the camp fire, he knew it was in the middle of the day and no one would be there but he hope one would.
   He had been right too, there she sat, and there he was.
   It usually only was Nico who sat down and talked to Hestia but ever since he mentioned her to Leo, he had made it to his chore to talk to the goddess every now and then.
   Hestia sent a smile his way and waved him closer. Even though she disguised herself as a mere child he knew that she was so much more. And today, he would ask a favor.

   "My dear Goddess, would you grant me a wish?" he asked, kneeling beside his favorite goddess.

   "Anything for a young demigod like yourself."

   Leo looked up and tried to see who Hestia talked to. Leo with his tousled brown hair, those brown eyes that were rimmed with red. Had he been crying?
   "I wish to speak with him."
   "I can not let you speak to him yourself, but I can serve as a gateway if you so wish." Hestia stood up by the fire and took Nico's cold hand in hers. Her hand was warm, just like the sun, and Nico truly felt at home.

   "Can you tell him that I know, that I know that he loves me."

   Hestia nodded and sent forward his word. Leo burst out crying once more. Nico wished he could touch Leo, he wanted to hug and protect the small mechanic, but he couldn't, not yet.

   "Tell him that I love him too." Nico smiled and squeezed Hestia's hand. "But tell him that I don't want anymore dreams from him. I appreciate what he gave me and I shall live on with that hope but I can't live with only seeing him there. I will allow him to contact me once a year... and of course, if he ever finds me, he is allowed to send me a heads up."

   "Nico di Angelo, you are a warm soul even though your father wishes you not to be. I shall tell him but I believe that you do not want to see him break down. Enjoy the time you have here." Hestia let go of his hand and just like that he was whisked away to the lake.
   There he sat with Percy, Percy who was alone.

   Even though Nico couldn't make an impact he sat with his friend. Lending him his ear as the son of the sea god tried talking to his father.
  When he felt that Percy would be better left alone he walked to Piper and Jason. The couple sat by the strawberry fields. Nico swore he could smell the sweet scent of strawberries. For he first time in for ever he didn't feel like a third wheel next to this power couple.
   Once again he sent a quiet goodbye, he knew he would be back, he just didn't know when.

   The last thing he did before the dream disappeared was visit Leo (Nico tried visiting his sister but the dream rules didn't let him). Leo was now alone by the camp fire, he wasn't crying but still close to the tears. Nico sank down next to his best friend, he took a deep breath and then leaned up and place a gentle ghost kiss on Leo's lips. A ghost kiss from the Ghost King.