By Amanda Pizzolatto (alias Aurora Mandeville)

Word Count: 31845

Rating: PG for scary situations

Summary: Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, is used to being alone, until one day a girl with auburn hair waltzes into his life…

During breakfast the next morning, Nico and Lucy found out that they would have a tutor coming over starting the next day. Mayor Hermann didn’t think that they should go to school since River had informed the mayor that the two would only be staying for three months. Mr. Hermann also mentioned that a maid usually came in the afternoon to clean up, and that she was not to be disturbed. After that, the rest of breakfast was quiet, though Mrs. Hermann did ask Lucy to join her in her errands, an offer Lucy readily accepted. Nico didn’t want to go. Not only was there the prospect of a crowd of people which often tired him out faster, but also, he wanted to rest. He couldn’t pass up the opportunity, Molching was quiet, somewhat peaceful, and Nico just wanted to enjoy it. There were no monsters, no Weeping Angels, not even annoying, time-travelling Doctors or judgmental demigods. He glanced at the mayor and his wife; then again, they didn’t seem to like the look of him either.

The mayor finished his breakfast first and left for work. His wife finished next, followed by Lucy. Before Lucy got up from the table, she glanced at Nico.

“Will you be alright by yourself? I can ask Mrs. Hermann if she doesn’t mind you tagging along,” stated Lucy.

Nico shook his head. “I’ll be fine, I’m used to being alone. Though, right now, I want to be,” he quickly added upon noticing Lucy’s worried look.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

He smiled softly at her. “I’m sure, thanks. It’s just . . . right now I feel like I could sleep all day.”

“Alright, but don’t sleep all day; otherwise, I get to start calling you lazy bones,” quipped Lucy with a mischievous grin.

Nico snorted and nearly spat out his milk; she had to make that comment while he was drinking, didn’t she. Nico managed to keep the milk in his mouth and swallowed it while Lucy giggled.

“And what do I get the pleasure of calling you, a bouncy bunny?”

“Say what?” exclaimed Lucy as she placed her hands on her hips.

But before Nico could reply, she let out a little shriek. Nico nearly fell out of his chair laughing. Mrs. Hermann had come up behind her quietly and tapped her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Lucy, I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s time to go,” stated Mrs. Hermann, trying to keep a smile from growing on her face.

Lucy chuckled nervously. “Alright, Mrs. Hermann. Let me pick up my dishes, and I’ll join you at the front door.”

Mrs. Hermann nodded before turning and walking out the door. Lucy turned and shot Nico a glare before leaving the dining room to pick up her dishes and join Mrs. Hermann. Nico was still snickering, even after he heard the front door closing. He calmed himself down long enough to finish his food and quickly stacked his dishes in the kitchen. He walked towards the library, eager to get a little reading done before taking a nap. But he paused as he opened the door to the library. There was a girl of about fourteen staring straight back at him, like a deer caught in headlights. Nico and the girl stared at each other for a bit, she surprised that she had been apparently caught, and he surprised that he had actually caught someone going through the books in the library.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in German.

She blinked at him for a bit and tilted her head. Had he said something wrong? River had told him that his German was pretty good. That’s when he realized that she wasn’t questioning his German, she was questioning his accent.

“Borrowing a book, what are you doing here? And why do you talk like that? You’re clearly not German.”

“Well, thanks for pointing out something I already know. I’m from Italy, that’s why. Why are you borrowing books?” Nico asked.

“I like to read. Why are you here and not in Italy?”

He groaned. “Because my parents think it’s the safest place right now until some trouble my family’s in blows over.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I don’t know; they told me the less I know, the better. So you have your book now, can you go?” He gave her a glare, but was taken aback by her clear and fearless refusal to leave as she sat down on the window sill of the only window in the library.

“Why are you doing that?” she asked.

“Because when I do it, people usually leave.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because everyone’s scared of me.”

“Why is everyone scared of you?”

“Well, look at me, I look scary!” blurted Nico, nearly becoming frustrated at the fact that someone wasn’t scared of him. But, that was what he wanted, wasn’t it?

“No you don’t, you just look silly pretending to be angry; you’re probably just sad about leaving your family and all.”

Nico paused for a bit. “Well, there are other reasons.”

“What are those?”

“I-it’s hard to explain . . .” began Nico, running his fingers through his hair.

“I’m not stupid.”

“I didn’t say you were! And it had nothing to do with being stupid or not, it’s just, it’s a dangerous secret.”

“Is it the same secret that’s gotten your family in trouble?”

“No, I don’t know that secret; this one I do, because it’s part of my family history,” replied Nico.

“Oh, are you related to pirates?” she asked.

“I wish, but no.”

“Ghosts?”

“Uh, don’t most people assume their ancestors are ghosts?” returned Nico, wondering what she meant by that question.

“Oh, right.”

“Don’t you believe in ghosts?”

The girl shrugged. “Never really gave much thought to it. There’s not any books in here on the subject anyhow.”

“Wait, so then, why mention ghosts if . . . were you listening in our conversation yesterday?”

The girl shrugged again, a bit sheepishly this time. “Sort of, I was wanting to return this book, but I left since you and the girl were talking in here.”

“Of course you were, thanks for being kind enough to not listen in on the whole thing,” muttered Nico.

“You’re welcome!” she replied cheerily. “Do you like books?”

Nico glanced around the library before replying with, “Yes, I like books, they’re easier to deal with than people, you can shut them up whenever you like.”

The girl laughed. “I guess you don’t like dealing with people.”

“Not really, especially dumb people.”

“Like me?”

Nico shook his head. “No, you’re just inquisitive; you’re working on being smart, not dumb.”

She smiled and stood up. “Well, it was nice chatting with you, but I should be leaving; school will start in a few minutes and I’m sure to be late. Good day.”

“You’ll come by tomorrow?”

She shrugged. “Maybe, depends on how fast I can finish this book.”

“Alright, well, Lucy would probably like to meet you. I’m Nico di Angelo, by the way.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Nico di Angelo. My name’s Liesel Meminger. Is Lucy the girl you were chatting with yesterday?”

Nico nodded.

“Great, I’d like to meet her, too. Maybe I can bring my friend along; maybe we should meet in the woods just outside of town tomorrow afternoon, if you don’t mind coming outside for just a teeny bit.”

“No, actually, we were wondering what we could do instead of moping around here all day, even with a tutor. We’ll meet you in the forest tomorrow, after school gets out, right?”

“Of course, we can’t meet if we’re in school!”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Right, of course, how dumb of me.”

She chuckled. “You know, if you weren’t so busy being gloomy and all, you could make a great comedian.”

“Yeah, I’d still have an empty audience; they’d all be ghost jokes.”

“I’d pay for that, if I had any money,” she replied as she proceeded to climb out the window.

“Oh look, there’s my clumsy assistant,” he quipped, poking his head out the window to watch her progress.

She glanced up to give him a look, but didn’t say anything as she concentrated on getting down without breaking a limb.

“You do know the front door is that way,” Nico stated, indicating the direction of the door.

She paused in her climb to answer, “Yes, but, Mrs. Hermann told me to come this way. Mr. Hermann doesn’t like it when we younger folks read books. All part of the Nazi thinking, since they’re now burning books. But I’m beginning to think it might be because I’m poor.”

Nico didn’t have an answer for that, and Liesel continued her descent. He looked around the area, realizing in a second that he was subconsciously checking the surroundings. He noticed a boy watching them from the tree line around the property, arms crossed.

“My my, aren’t you a little young to be dating?” he asked Liesel.

She had finished climbing and now glanced at him with a questioning look. “What are you talking about?”

He nodded in the direction of the boy. “Your blond boyfriend over there; he doesn’t look too happy about you cheating on him.”

She looked over to where he was indicating and saw the blond. “Rudy? What is he doing here? I need to go, see you tomorrow, Geist Meister.”

She dashed off to join the blond, the two getting in some kind of argument before she could give an explanation. When she did, Rudy seemed to calm down and even waved at Nico before the two disappeared behind the foliage. Meanwhile, Nico’s mouth had fallen open, for he had finally translated what she had said. She had called him Ghost Master.

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