and be human | {calypso/nico}

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

N I C O

dust the dust up
off your shoulders
you’ll come round
and be h u m a n again

"And Mr. Davenport, welcome to your first day!"

First real day, anyhow. He had spent the last day on tour, following a girl named Aylin around like a lost puppy as he tried to familiarize himself with the estate. He was surprised by how much it felt like a compound. When he had first arrived, the wrought iron fences and the tall, Gothic towers had reminded him more of a castle, but the bleached walls and incessant artificial lighting put him in the interrogation room back in District Seven, where he had held his transfer interview a few weeks before.

The only sources of life came from those sitting around him, and a courtyard in the center of the estate, with a square acre of grass and exactly three oak trees, and neither the people nor the courtyard seemed particularly warm. It was like something was off just below the surface, built. Man-made.

Competitive.

"Take the seat behind Miss Leto," his professor said, nodding to a dark-haired girl who sat in the front row. "From what I understand, he droned, "she is the you of this institution."

Nico didn't know if he should grin or blush or hiss. Everyone seemed to shift uncomfortably, as if they weren't very happy with Calypso being the best, or perhaps as if they were annoyed that the professor was already putting him into the same category as her on his first day.

He took his seat, nodding to the girl as he passed her up.

"Alright, so today's case is an interesting one, and one that I helped solve when I was sitting in the very same seats you all are today." With a click of his remote, the blank screen behind him became a picture of a young woman, red hair, sun kissed skin. Very clearly born of the seas.

"Erica Whinn," the professor started, "But before we get any further, I'm going to pair you all up."

Nico felt a bitterness on his tongue. Partner work on the first day? It wasn't particularly how he had imagined this going. He hadn't ever been the biggest fan of group work in the first place— left too much room for his grades to pay consequences of another person's mistake.

He looked around the room, surveying his peers. The girl from the day before, Aylin, had mentioned being in the top ten on the list. He wouldn't have minded being paired with her. There was also a girl sitting on the far edge of the front row, with silver air and a seemingly permanently unimpressed expression that told him she was confident in what she could do.

Or—

He had only just looked directly in front of him at the girl when the professor called her name.

"Leto, you'll be with the greenie today."

He bit his bottom lip to keep himself from rolling his eyes. New to the facility? Yes. New to this? Far from it. It was true, most of what he had learned was more geared toward field work and being the perfect soldier, but that just essentially meant he was getting specialty career training, really. Combine that with his naturally investigative tendencies and his will to be the best and greenie became among the most undeserved nicknames for Nico Davenport.

Still, jaw clenched, he pulled his desk up next to the girl. Deja vu, and he was dragged all the way back to middle school. He could still see Ryder smiling at him as he tried his best to ignore him so colorfully, so vividly, that it was hard to believe it happened over four years ago. In those few, fleeting moments, Nico had never known that the boy sitting in front of him would soon become his best friend.

Flash forward a year, foot stepping on his chest as he tried to slow down his labored breathing. "It's Aspen, by the way," And he had coughed, "Nico," and then, "Do you mind taking your foot off of my chest now?"

Again, he hadn't had any idea what an impact that girl would have in his life, or how she would become one of the two people Nico found it too difficult to bid farewell to.

He looked at the girl next to him. Pretty. Younger than him. Clear eyes, clear skin, clear intentions. She was here to be the best. From what Nico heard, she was doing a good job of it.

Pity that he had shown up to ruin the ride.

"I'm Nico," he said simply, holding his hand out between them.

[✨ zozo.]

CALYPSO.

i'll use you as a warning sign
that if you talk enough sense, yeah, you'll lose your mind
and i'll use you as a focal point
so i don't lose sight of what i want

It costs to be the best.

For all the glory she drinks up there must be a price. Calypso is no stranger to that. Sacrificing time and sleep and precious afternoons, likability, everyone is a liability. Trust breaks from her skin and floats away with the winds, she burns bridges as she builds them and grinds the piles of ashes underneath the heel of her combat boots into the dirt below.

Today, it costs to be the best. Someone respectable sits her down and hands her a file, tells her they've got a new kid. A transfer.

"From another school?" she asks, curious, eyes flitting over a name and birth date.

"Another District."

She wrinkles her nose in disgust. "Seven?!"

"Yes," her Headmaster says curtly. "His father was a graduate here."

"Sir, with all due respect," she starts, furious, the folder in her hands falling to her lap, "I don't even think that's legal-"

"You'll do as we ask, Miss Leto. Keep an eye on him. Let him learn the ropes this week."

Calypso glowers, trademark snarl threatening to bloom across her lips.

"And give the boy a chance. You might be surprised at his skill set."

She scoffs, albeit under her breath, and leaves with a courteous "Yes sir."

Her boots clatter against the Academy halls, heart on fire, ready to haul a flaming fist into someone's skull. Like hell some scumbag from Seven was going to show her and her classmates up.

She returns to her hunting grounds, takes centre-stage at her round courtyard table reserved for the precious Top Ten - save for Brentley Grey. Lawbreakers weren't allowed in Calypso's circle. Idiots like Mateus, maybe, but not filth. Especially not filth that lured her sister away.

Blinking the thought away, all eyes turn to her and the scowl on her face. She mentioned "greenie" and "transfer scum", someone makes a joke about tree-houses and dirty bare feet, others laugh. Aylin recounts her school-wide tour with the kid, Caly pities her, takes a bite of her apple and pretends it's Nico's throat. Bexler cracks a joke, she rolls her eyes and a a short silence follows. Calypso falls comfortably back into her rank as Number One and everything is okay, for the while.

She still feels threatened. Even more than usual.

And the threat strolls into class a second before the bell rings, all wide-eyed and dumbfounded with that new-kid nervousness. Nico takes a seat right behind her and nods - acknowledging her presence - and doesn't realise his mistake.

The class shifts, nervous, bracing themselves for the wrath of Calypso Leto. She merely rolls her eyes and sighs, the class following suit, the cost of being the best singing in the back of her head to the tune of the Headmaster's words. 

You'll do as we ask.

It's a gift and a curse to be the best, she gives and she takes and she pays and she receives in return. 

"Leto, you'll be with the greenie today."

Today takes, and takes, and takes.

"You've got to be-" and there he is, planted right beside her before she can finish her breath.. Brown eyes and a crisp new uniform, handshake and all.

"I'm Nico" the boy introduces, like she hasn't read his file before first period and knows every detail about him. "First in Class" - yeah, but in District Seven. Tragic, she thinks.

She ignores his outstretched hand, of course.

"Let's get one thing straight" Calypso chimes underneath the background noise of her professor, opening up her folders and books before them. "I'm the best here. Always have been, always will be, and I'm not about to let some District Seven waltz in and ruin that for me."

Only now does she meet his gaze, her own steely-eyed and full of blind hatred.

"So I'll make your first week a little easier. I'll do all the work, we both get perfect marks, and you can take some of the credit."

Then she'll leave him out to dry and watch him fall to the back of the class with the stragglers and hangers-on where he belongs. The thought makes her smile.

"Deal?"

It's her turn to raise her hand - not a peace offering, but a compromise: allies.

Temporary allies.

and i'll use you as a makeshift gauge
for how much to give and how much to take
i found love where it wasn't supposed to be
right in front of me, talk some sense to me

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

nico davenport

dust the dust up
off your shoulders
you’ll come round
and be h u m a n again

Serpent syllables wrapped themselves around his throat, dared him to open his mouth and speak. Calypso, apparently, kept her title as queen of this castle through means of fear.

Nico could only think of one problem he had with that: he wasn't afraid.

"Let's get one thing straight. I'm the best here. Always have been, always will be—" she said, brown eyes full of every cold winter night and shiver of skin Nico had ever known. Conviction, he noticed, At least she seems like she means what she is saying. A quick survey of those sitting closest to them told Nico that everyone else believed it too. She had her hooks in every single one of them, it seemed.

Pity, but not his problem. In fact, it just made his climb to number one that much easier.

"—and I'm not about to let some District Seven waltz in and ruin that for me."

This was what he'd been forced to teach himself back in District Seven, and the thing that had gotten his attention for law enforcement in the first place. People took one look at him and made their assumptions about big boys with broad shoulders and their hunger for power and recognition, but Nico would have still been in Seven if that were the truth.

He wasn't made to be a grunt. He loved solving unanswered questions too much.

For instance, what Calypso was doing was actually an interrogation tactic, and an effective one, at that. It was the same one peacekeepers used when they walked in the room and said something like "Alright, we know it was you. Come clean right now and we'll request a lighter sentencing."

If you took away a person's ability to choose, they did exactly as you said.

But if Calypso Leto thought she could convince him he didn't stand a chance of taking that seat from her, she had another thing coming.

"So I'll make your first week a little easier. I'll do all the work, we both get perfect marks, and you can take some of the credit." He leaned back in his seat, arms crossed over his chest as he nodded, pretending to consider her offer. Maybe he could take it, just to avoid making an enemy. Maybe he could accept the challenge veiled in her words, and maybe he'd gain her respect once she saw that he was nothing to play with.

"My first week happened a few years ago, actually. Same as you," He kept his voice low and even, because that was what always made him most furious when he was arguing with someone. Ryder used to do it just because he knew how easily it got under his skin.

"I guess you could say I've got a bit of a competitive streak," He was leaning toward her again, the fire in his eyes daring to melt the ice in hers, "So don't bother making anything easy for me."

He noticed the professor suppressing a smile as he readied the work material for the day, shaking his head in amusement. Aylin, the girl who had given him the tour, snapped her head back, eyes wide with shock at the boy who had taken a lion's paw when it asked him to dance.

He popped the eraser end of his pencil into his mouth, smirking. "That way," he said pleasantly, "When I am ranked number one, no one can say they did me any favors."

The professor chose that moment to intervene, slapping a rolled-up pile of papers against the palm of his hand. "Alright, everyone. It's murder day!" Nico held Calypso's gaze, even as the professor began passing out case files. When he handed Calypso her paper, he nodded to Nico. "Detective Leto, this is your new partner, Detective Davenport."

The role playing seemed a bit cheesy, but Nico had to admit, he liked hearing Detective Davenport so much more than Officer Davenport. When the professor addressed Nico next, he finally allowed his eyes to part from Calypso. "Ready to prove yourself?"

He smirked again.

"We'll see."