The rest of the drive went quietly. They only stopped once to stretch their legs, visit washrooms and for Masky and Hoody to switch so Hoody was behind the wheel now. Once they had all piled back in Masky passed out the sandwiches Hoody had packed. Toby insisted Masky put on a CD called American Beauty/American Psycho by Fall out Boy, Nico liked it more than he expected. Masky fell asleep halfway through the album so once it was over they didn't put on any new music. Instead Toby slipped on a pair of headphones and started playing with one of Nico's hands to distract himself.
Nico looked out the window listening to the soft beats emanating from Toby's headphones and felt him trace the spaces between Nico's fingers. Nico's lips twitched up in a smile it felt good, if a little strange, almost tickly but he let Toby keep going. Toby flipped Nico's and palm up and started tracing the lines and creases there. By the end of this car ride Toby would know Nico's hands better than he did. Eventually the feel of Toby's fingers trailing over Nico's palm lulled him back into a doze.
There was fire everywhere. He couldn't see through the glare of it. He tried desperately to fine a patch of shadow he could use to get away from the heat and smoke that choked him. The shadows fled from the fire like living things so he couldn't catch them. He searched until blinded by the smoke, and then he just stumbled blindly away from where the heat was worst. Then suddenly it was gone. Nico looked up and around him, he was in a garden, almost familiar to him but not quite. More familiar was a chubby boy near the river that ran through the garden.
"Clovis." Nico called. The boy started up from his position leaning over the water looking around franticly before he spotted Nico.
"Oh hey Nico." Clovis said smiling followed by a yawn. Nico raised an eyebrow. Really? The kid was even tired in his dreams? Weird. "How did you get into my dream?"
"I don't know I was in my own dream running away from a fire and then suddenly I was here." Nico said shrugging and crossing his arms before curiosity got the better of him. "Well since I'm here now you might as well tell me what's going in at camp. Have they found Percy yet?" He ignored the small flutter of hope in his chest when he said Percy's name and focused on Clovis, who was frowning with a small crease between his eyebrows.
"No they haven't." Clovis said slowly. "Hera sent Annabeth a dream saying to go to the grand canyon and look for a guy with one shoe and that he would be the answer to her problem. She thought it would be Percy but it wasn't, just some blond son of Zeus called Jason with some serious memory loss. The Lethe, Nico, just like you, the gods are doing some serious messing with things."
Nico growled and rubbed his hands over his face. So what was going on was bigger than a potential hole in death, and the gods were getting involved. That never ended well for anyone, and if death was involved there was no way Nico would be allowed to pass through this unscathed. He raised his face from his hands and was about to tell Clovis about the little he knew, but just then he was jerked out of his dream.
Toby had been shaking Nico lightly, he stopped quickly when Nico jerked awake.
"Wow you are one heavy sleeper." Toby commented smiling at Nico. "It's time to rearrange again. Me and Hoody need to go from here separately because Jay doesn't like us, so you should sit in the front with Masky." Nico nodded groggily. Toby gave Nico a quick peck on the lips before putting his goggles and mouth guard back on, leaving the car where Hoody was already waiting. They took off into the woods and Nico moved up into the front seat next to Masky. Before Masky started the car he flipped open his phone and hit a speed dial.
"Yep Jay, it's Tim. I'm about an hour away from the meet up spot... ya I know it's short notice, don't worry I'll wait for you. Oh by the way I had to bring someone along with me... Don't worry Jay he's just my little cousin he'll be fine... Jay are you ever going to trust me? I had to bring him along it'll be fine... okay... yep, see you soon." Masky hung-up the phone and flipped it closed stuffing it back in his pocket.
