Nico and Yana| Backdated October 11

[om_hades]

Nico receives upsetting news from his absent father re: new sibling. His anger manifests into an unfortunate power upgrade. Warning: Animals die in this log.

Nico wasn't sure where he was going. Envelope in hand, he wandered into the woods, figuring if it prompted him to raise dead at least he wouldn't be responsible for a school wide zombie invasion.
He'd save that trick for later.

Once he got to a pretty secluded spot, Nico went ahead and plopped down onto the ground, fist clenching and unclenching the letter. He wondered what dear old dad could possibly have to say this time. I mean, he already dropped the fact that Nico had another sister out there somewhere on him. And Nico had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with him.

Deciding to bite the bullet, Nico tore open the back of the envelope and pulled out the short memo scrawled within. Nico wasn't even sure this qualified as a letter.

Nico's brows grew more and more furrowed as he read, and re-read the note. He found the paper growing more crumpled as his fists clenched it tighter and tighter. No way. No FUCKING way. He couldn't just... he couldn't just do this. He couldn't expect Nico to just...to just accept this other sister here. In his home.

Crying out in frustration, Nico pounded the ground, tears starting to blur his vision. Nico heard a noise and immediately looked in its direction to find a squirrel. A squirrel who, the more Nico glared at it, started to...fade. Like Nico's zombies, but in reverse... What the....

Nico scrambled to his feet, heart pounding as his anger faded into fear. Did he just...what just...what. Before his eyes, the ground opened to allow the squirrel skeleton in. Nico blinked and it was gone. It could have been a dream if not for the disturbed looking ground and the adrenaline still pumping through Nico's body.

How did he do that? He just...he just killed a fucking squirrel. What...

Nico sunk back to the ground and buried his face in his hands. What the hell did he just do?

Yana glanced at the time on her phone - again - and sighed. Where the hell was he? Nico was supposed to have met her to do homework nearly a half hour earlier, and - well, okay, Nico not wanting to do homework was nothing new, but normally he didn't just not show.

Illyana fired off yet another text message, waited a few more minutes, debating, then got to her feet and summoned a stepping disk, leaving her homework behind on the library table.

"Hey, did you forget we -" Illyana broke off as she caught sight of Nico on the ground, and her forehead furrowed. "What's wrong?"

"Go away Yana," Nico spat forcefully, his entire body tensing. Would he kill Yana if she got too close?

"Umm...no? Have I ever gone away when you've told me to?" Illyana took a step closer instead. "If you want to get rid of me, you're going to have to tell me what's wrong."

"Don't get close to me," Nico warned. "Just...just go away."

"Why?" Illyana sighed, crossed her arms over her chest, and titled her head, trying to catch his eyes. "Nico, what's going on?"

Nico avoided Yana's eyes like the plague. Nu uh. No way was he going to let her get close now. He tried to pull his body in as close as possible. He told her, "Please...I might hurt you."

"You're not going to hurt me." Illyana waved that aside with a frustrated motion. Honestly, what was it with guys insisting they were going to hurt her, anyway? It wasn't as if she was that fragile. Sighing, she sat down crosslegged on the ground. "I am getting seriously worried, though. Should I go get Simon or something?"

"I dunno--maybe?" Nico said, frustration boiling over despite his best efforts to stay calm. "You know how powers can like, expand or whatever? Like you sending people without you and the knife and stuff?"

"Sword. But yeah...oh." Realization finally dawned, and Illyana bit at her lip awkwardly. Right, new power of...some kind. "What happened?"
"I could literally kill you," Nico stated firmly, looking up finally to meet Yana's eyes.

"Umm...so could half of the other people at this school." Illyana's eyebrows rose. "Unlike some of them, I'm guessing you don't actually want to?" She sighed and pushed her hand back through her hair. "Nico, can you just, I don't know, tell me what happened? Because I really don't think you're going to kill me just because I pushed you off the couch last night."

Nico hesitated for just a second before snapping his fingers, watching with pursed lips as the ground re-opened, a squirrel skeleton coming up to resolidify. "He was alive and well this morning."

Illyana wiggled her fingers, trying to lure the skeleton animal towards her. "How do you know?"
"Because I watched him go from alive animal...to this. Because of me."

That definitely caught Illyana's attention, and she froze, only her eyes moving from the animal to Nico's face. "What did you do?"

"I don't--I don't know," Nico managed to get out, eyes dropping back down. "That's the problem."

Illyana bit at her lip. That wasn't good, and she could understand why he'd be freaked. "Did it just...zombify? Or did it die first?"

"I'm pretty sure zombify-ing makes it pretty dead," Nico retorted harshly.

"I meant did it die and then come back, or go straight to being a zombie, genius." She rolled her eyes, but took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down before continuing. "C'mon, Nico, I know you're freaked out, but I'm trying to help."

"Don't you get it? You can't help me," Nico practically yelled at her, hands clenching at his sides. He stood up, unable to stand still any longer and began pacing. With a loud yell of "Fuck!", Nico punched the nearest tree to him, ignoring the pain, and watching in horror as a bird that had apparently been on a branch fell down and skelefied.

"Stop it!" Illyana yelled back, referring both to the bird (oh fuck, he'd actually just killed a bird, hadn't he?) and to his yelling. "Nothing was dying when you weren't mad, so calm down!"

"Why do you think I want you to go?" Nico let out mournfully.

"I know why you want me to go! But I'm not going, so take a breath and calm down, okay?" She took a breath and exhaled, then got up and took a step closer. "Just calm down," she repeated more quietly. "It's gonna be okay."

"How Yana? How is it going to be okay?" He asked her, returning to his pacing back and forth, glaring at the ground furiously.

"I don't know! It just is!" In what she was pretty sure was the stupidest all time move of her life (but honestly, she couldn't think of anything else to do) she waited until Nico's pacing turned him in the other direction, then stepped in behind him and rested her hand on his arm.

Nico's entire body tensed. Please fucking gods, don't. "Back. Up," Nico practically snarled. No time for niceness when murder was on the line.

"I'm okay," Illyana protested. She dropped her hand, and took one step back, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. "Nico..." What could she say? Somehow, I'm sorry I got a cool sword and you get to kill small wildlife didn't seem appropriate when his power upgrade matched up with some of her own worst nightmares. "Turn around," she said finally.

Nico stayed facing away, a frown marring his face. He looked much more like the boy he was before the school than he had been in a year. Finally, with tears burning his eyes, he turned to face Yana, jaw set.

Illyana met his eyes, despite more than a few tears in her own. She stood there for a few moments, still trying to figure out what to say, and finally held out her hand and just waited for him to take it.

Nico wouldn't. Couldn't. Losing Bianca was...the worst thing in his history of bad things.
He wouldn't be responsible for killing Yana. "Yana..."

Chewing at her lip, Illyana shrugged, though she left her hand extended. "I trust you." Her lips quirked up just a bit on one side - obviously forced - and she shrugged again. "Besides, I'm not a cute fluffy animal. Should be totally safe. Nothing happened when I touched you, right?"

Because I prayed to the fucking gods to let you live, Nico felt like screaming. "Don't push our luck," was his response instead. He felt like a caged animal, trying to be pacified.

"Somehow? I don't think either of us is ever going to qualify as lucky." Illyana let her hand fall. "We just keep going anyway."

"Can you please just...go away?" Nico asked, his voice breaking slightly.

Illyana's blinked and dragged her hand over her eyes, then shook her head. "I don't think so. No. I'm not leaving you like this. You never leave me."

"I think the circumstances are a little different," Nico muttered bitterly. It wasn't like Yana had ever killed a squirrel. (Or had she? No, stupid thought Nico, stay focused.)

"It doesn't matter." Because it didn't, did it? Not really. "I'm not going. Deal." She exhaled slowly and gave him a pleading look. "Just...take a deep breath, okay? It'll help."

"And then what? After the breath, when I can still kill things, then what?" Nico asked, desperation creeping into his voice. This was not exactly what he had pictured for a powers upgrade.

"Then we'll figure it out. Look, Nico...," She pushed her hand back through her hair, frustrated by her own inability to figure out what to say that would help. Maybe she should call someone? Cal was way better at this shit than she was. Except she was pretty sure Nico wouldn't hurt her, even mad - she wasn't so sure about anyone else. "I know you're freaked. I'd be freaked. But I'm way closer to you than that bird was, and I'm fine, right? So if you calm down, we can go see Simon or Mr. Lensherr or something, and maybe they can help you figure it out?"

Nico was already shaking his head. No. Hard pass. "I can kill people, and you want me to go into a mansion full of them? Nu uh, no."

"What are you going to do then? Take off?" Illyana gestured with one arm, exasperated. "Besides, half the people here can kill people, and some of them have. I could kill people. I'm still here."

Nico snorted. "Like you would kill someone..."

"I blasted my brother into a wall," Illyana pointed out, just in case Nico'd forgotten. "I'm still a little disappointed that I didn't kill him. And if I'd been able to, there probably would have been a whole lot of people dead in Nevada."

"But those are people who deserve it," Nico pointed out, because to him it was entirely different.
"That wouldn't make them any less dead." Illyana cocked her head and eyed him curiously. "Calmer?"

Nico frowned. "I...guess?"

Illyana offered a faint, humorless smile. "Good enough. Tell me what happened, exactly?" She sat down on the ground, gesturing for him to join her.

Nico hesitated, but then slowly sat down several feet away. "I don't know...I was reading a letter, I got mad...poof, dead squirrel."

That got Illyana's attention, but not in a way that related to the original topic. "You heard from your dad?" she asked, making a face.

"Yeah," Nico admitted with a grimace.

"Still an asshole, huh?" She offered a near approximation of a smile. "Some things don't change."

"Still an asshole," Nico agreed, leaving it at that with a deep frown. He hesitated for a few moments before scooting a few inches closer to Yana.

"Fuck him," she reminded him, without making any outward indication that she'd noticed his moving. "You don't need him anyway."

Nico shrugged. No, he didn't need his dad--hadn't needed him his entire life, thank you very much. But it still sucked, you know? That the one family member still alive wanted jack shit to do with him, except to tell him about this apparent other kid he had.

Nico guessed, considering though, who could blame him?

"Why are you still here?" Nico couldn't help but ask in a broken voice.

Illyana tilted her head, just a little, met his eyes, and held out her hand with a crooked smile. He knew the answer to that just as well as she did, even if he couldn't see it right now. "Where else would I be?"

Slowly, and nervously, Nico extended his hand towards her. Hopefully he didn't kill her.

With more confidence than she was actually feeling, Illyana smiled encouragement and threaded her fingers through his. "Told you it'd be okay." Hopefully, there wouldn't be a delayed reaction that would make a dead liar out of her.

Nico was really careful not to think too hard, or breathe too hard, or really...move at all. Statue. He was a human statue.

Illyana rolled her eyes, shifted closer, and poked his leg with her free hand. "Knock it off. I really doubt not breathing is going to help."

Carefully extracting his hand, Nico sighed as he laid down on the grass. "What am I gonna do Yana?"

"I don't know." Illyana swiveled around and lay down next to him, leaving a foot or so of space in between before he could protest. "You should probably talk to the headmasters before you do anything drastic though, huh?"

"Yeah probably," Nico grumbled with a frown. He was still getting used to checking in with people before doing stuff.

"They might have some ideas," she offered with an apologetic look. Talking to the headmasters wasn't exactly a priority in her life either, but sometimes it wasn't a bad plan. "Professor Lensherr was really awesome when I first summoned my sword." She cocked her head a little and eyed him curiously. "Why, what do you want to do?"

"I dunno..."

Yana rolled onto her side, propping her head with her hand, and gave him a skeptical look. "Uh huh."

"Run away again," Nico admitted with a frown, not meeting her eyes. "Stay away from people."

"Nico..." Illyana sighed. Arguing with Nico wasn't going to work; she knew that. And honestly, she wasn't sure she wouldn't do the same thing. "Fine, if that's what you want. When do you want to go? I want to pack some stuff first."

Nico blinked, confusion coloring his features. "What? Why would you need to pack?"

Illyana favored him with a look of disbelief. "How many times have you let me take off on my own, if you knew I was going?"

"Never..." Nico answered slowly, brow furrowed. He wasn't sure what that had to do with anything. Yana had people here-- Vance, and Kitty, and Cal. She shouldn't just bail.

"Exactly." Having made her point, Illyana quirked a trace of a smile. "Besides, I'd be a pretty crappy girlfriend if I did. So if you're set on going, you're not going by yourself. Got it?"

"Okay I guess...I guess I'll stay here," Nico said hesitantly. After all, he couldn't be responsible for making Yana leave. Even at the risk of killing others.

"Good plan." Illyana's smile widened for a moment - wow, she could be Machia-whatever-it-was too, who knew? - but then disappeared as she rolled back onto her back. "I'd miss you, anyway," she admitted. "So, we just need to figure this out, right?" Which, okay, was probably easier said than done, but at least Nico wasn't trying to do it back on the streets. Somehow, considering his temper, she didn't think that would have worked out all that well.

"Just," Nico snorted sadly, his eyes still looking heavy and sad. This wasn't going to be easy, was it?

"I know." Illyana reached over to squeeze his arm briefly, pulling her hand back a little before he could object but leaving it close enough for him to take it if he wanted to.