"Lighten up, Ghost Boy," Leo urged with that insane grin on his face. "Pretty soon your face will be stuck like that. C'mon just a little smile?"

Leo held up his thumb close to his forefinger to demonstrate 'little'.

Nico scowled. What was with this kid? Gritting his teeth, Nico growled, "Leave me alone, Valdez."

"It's not hard," Leo persisted, still grinning. "It'll help with your depressed-always-serious state."

Nico simmered and nearly exploded, but managed to respond without yelling. "Easy for you to say. What do you know about depressed? You walk around like... like..."

Nico couldn't think of an appropriate comparison right now with his annoyance at its zenith, so he just finished with, "You've had a great life."

Leo barked out a laugh and Nico did a double-take. He stared at Leo with undisguised surprise. Over the past few days Nico had heard Leo laugh a lot. In fact the son of Hephaestus seemed to be always laughing—chuckling at his own jokes, teasing everyone else, and he was the first to laugh at anyone else's joke. But this time was like none of those times. Leo's laugh sounded hollow and humorless, serious and maybe even a touch depressed. Nico suddenly got the feeling that Leo had been fooling them all along.

"Is that what you think?" Leo asked, a wry smile – that had no business being on Leo's face – fixed there nonetheless.

Nico thought about saying, 'not anymore' but he could bring himself to say anything at all. Leo had effectively shocked Nico into silence.

Leo raised an eyebrow at Nico when he didn't speak and said, "I guess I'm an even better actor than I thought. Not even the guy with the same problem can see."

Nico couldn't tell if Leo was talking to him or himself. For a minute Nico saw disappointment, bitterness, and loneliness flit across Leo's expression all at once. Then he watched in awe as Leo expertly wiped the emotions off his face, arranged it into the usual impish expression, and grinned.

"Smile sometime, dude," Leo chirped, bouncing on his toes. "See ya later, Ghost Boy. Got Repair Boy things to do."

Leo practically skipped past him, and Nico turned to watch the other demigod scurry off to tinker with the controls like nothing had ever happened.

The ease and speed with which Leo constructed such a flawless and convincing mask quite frankly disturbed Nico. He wondered, for the first time, if someone was actually as lonely as he was.

I'm so bad. I should be working on the things that need to be updated. But I didn't.

Why? I dunno. Maybe I'm just trying to cause you all pain. But it was painful for me too, guys. Ahhhh the feels! We need more Nico and Leo bromance. No, we just need more bromance. Do you guys want anymore of this?