I skipped downstairs and bounced into the kitchen to make some lunch. Cecil and Lou Ellen had gone home, so it was just Nico and I.

I started making spaghetti and then brought it up to Nico.

He got really excited over the spaghetti.

"How'd you know I liked spaghetti?" He asked.

I shrugged. "You seem like that type of guy."

"Well you were right. I love it! I haven't had it in so long..."

He then proceeded to eat tons of spaghetti.

I smirked, "And I thought you had a small appetite."

"I really like spaghetti." He shrugged.

This was the first meal that he had actually eaten a good amount of food.

"Well, I'm going to bring these bowls downstairs." I said, standing up.

"Okay."

I went downstairs and smiled to myself.

But then things went downhill...

First I (quite literally) bumped into my mom, spilling spaghetti sauce on her work dress. I cringed. That wasn't a good start. Now my mom would be in a bad mood.

"Will, who were you talking to up there?"

"A friend. You wouldn't know him."

"Oh...well I want to meet him." She pushed past me and opened my bedroom door, despite my protests.

She saw Nico and turned to me, eyebrow raised.

"Will, I don't think you should be making friends with people like that."

"Mom-"

"He's obviously goth and probably gay."

"Mom-"

"And those aren't the kind of kids I want you hanging around with."

"Mom, I'm gay!"

"Oh....oh Will I'm sorry...."

I glared at her.

"But still, he's wearing all black."

"It's probably all he has. Mom, listen-"

"He has scars all over his body, so I bet he goes out and picks fights with random people. Anyway, He's not going to be worth your time."

I grit my teeth. "Mom listen to me for just a second. He was abused."

I went inside to Nico, who had tears streaming down his face.

"Nico, how about you rest a bit, okay?"

He nodded, and I turned off the lights.

When I knew he was asleep, I turned back to my mom.

"Mom, he was abused. You can't talk about him like that. He's been told his whole life that he's worthless and I just earned his trust. If you keep talking like that, he'll never trust me again."

"He....he was...his dad....how'd you get him to trust you?"

"Well, one, by not acting like he's not worth anything."

She looked at her feet.

"...and two by caring about him. That's really all he needed."

"I'm sorry."

"You should be."

I went over and sat by Nico.

He moved a little closer to me and I smiled.

"He really does trust you..."

I nodded.

"How long has he been here?"

"I forgot to count how many days."

"Days?!" My mom said, eyes wide, "He's been here for days?"

"Yeah. You just haven't cared enough to come up here."

"I did come up here! To check if your room was clean!"

"He was in here."

"He couldn't have been!"

"He was. He hid."

"Where?"

"Under the bed." (A/N: under the tree, under the tree! Does anyone understand this?)

"Oh." She frowned. "Is he kind?"

"Yes."

"And he can't go home..."

"No."

"...I guess he can stay."

"Yes! Oh my gods, thank you!"

She smiled. "You're welcome. But."

"Uh oh."

"But you have to take care of him."

"Oh that's not hard. I can do that."

"Good. He can stay."

He can stay!

But then Nico started shaking.

I took his hand and it dulled, but didn't stop. He whimpered.

"Shhhhh, Nico, it's okay. It's just a dream."

My mom smiled and left.

I pulled him into a hug and he stopped whimpering.

That's about the time that I saw his wrists. They were covered in scars. I gasped.

"Oh my gods..."

I took his other arm. It had scars too.

They weren't very neat, they went all over the place. They crisscrossed eachother, going diagonal and sideways. A few even went up and down.

Nico stirred at someone touching his arm. When he saw me looking at his arm, he pulled it away, eyes wide.

"I-I'm sorry-"

"Why did you do it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He said quietly. "My dad."

"When was the last time you did it?"

He thought for a moment before he answered, "A couple months before I came here."

"Oh my gods...."

He wouldn't look me in the eyes.

"You have to promise you won't do it again. Ever."

"But I-"

"Promise."

"I promise I'll try."

"Promise you won't. Ever."

He bit his lip, "Okay. Fine. I promise."

"Good."

The conversation went silent. It wasn't comfortable; I could tell he wanted to ask something.

"Hey, Will?"

"Yeah?"

"What did your mom say? When I was asleep?"

"She decided you could stay. Although, I would've found a way to keep you here whether she approved or not."

He nodded, and I asked what he wanted to do.

"Do you have mythomagic?"

"Mythomagic? Hmmmm...I think so. I'll go check."

I went downstairs and started digging around in the closet in which we kept games.

There it is!

I attempted to get the game out of the closet, but it was near the bottom and soon I was covered in board games and random pieces that had fell on top of me.

"Will?" I heard Nico come down the stairs.

When he saw me he laughed. It was beautiful.

"How did you manage to do that?" He giggled.

"Mythomagic was at the bottom."

Nico started to dig me out, and I wasn't being much help.

When I was finally out, Nico took my hand and helped me up.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Should we clean this up?"

"Yeah, probably."

We started putting the boxes back in the closet (we weren't very good and had to start over a lot) and closed the door.

"It hasn't been opened." Nico observed. "Have you ever played it?"

"Nope."

"I'll have to teach you. But I'm not going to show you my secrets. Only the general rules."

I gave him my best puppy dog eyes.

"Nope. That's not going to work on me."

"Please, Neeks?"

"Neeks?" He raised an eyebrow, questioning my nicknaming skills.

"Yes, Neeks."

He groaned, and I smiled.

"You love it. You love it whether you know you do or not."

He glared at me, but didn't say anything else about the nickname.

"Okay...where should we play this?"

"In my room."

"Okay."

We went inside, and I didn't have to close the door this time.

But I should have.

(A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUNNNNN this would be an amazhang ending to the chapter.)

Nico was getting really worked up about mythomagic, and was getting really loud.

"Nico, I don't see the difference between attack power and defense power."

"OH OH OH And forgot to tell you about how Athena can defeat any god except for Zeus, Hades, and Apollo. Also, NEVER FORGET that hades can beat anyone but Aphrodite and Apollo."

"Will? Your getting really loud! I'm trying to read!" I heard my mom call from downstairs.

"Sorry!"

I went over and closed the door to keep the sound from getting out.

We started playing mythomagic and soon Nico was beating me by 5,000 points.

"Niiiiico! This isn't fair! I think your cheating!"

"I'm not cheating! Im using my secrets and wisdom."

He made another move and was now beating me by 10,000 points.

I sighed. "How in the world did you get so good at this?"

"My sister and I used to play it all the time." He smiled a little at the memory.

"Your sister sounds amazing." (A/N: amazhang)

"She was," he said wistfully.

"Tell me about her."

"Well, for one thing, she was the only person that knew I was gay at the time. And she accepted me for it. She would put up with me playing mythomagic 24/7. She was an amazing artist...." he went on, telling me about his sister.

"You loved her."

"Yeah. Just like I love you."

I smiled, "I love you too."

Alrighty! That's done now. So how did you like it? Vote if you thought it was good, and comment otherwise.
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