I wonder how ten year old Nico felt alone in the forest, when he realized nobody was looking for him.
Okay, okay. May I expand (perhaps leaning a bit on interpretation territory at first)?
- Nico was the grandson of a rich, important diplomat (good enough at his job to be sent to the US in the late 20s/early 30s) and as such probably an aristocrat or a whatever peerage’s called in Italy
- Nico and Bianca, who were clearly beloved by their mother, and descendants/heirs to this rich man would always have had somebody looking after them: baby nurses, sitters, maids, their own relatives, etc... always surrounded by people ensuring their well-being
- Even after they move to the US, Maria dies but Hades was there, sending them this “lawyer” to reassure them that they still had someone to fall back on, sending them to a school (in a fucking castle, okay? Hades didn’t exactly go modest)
- Bianca becomes a hunter and damn Nico’s alone, sure, but there’s still people at CHB. Travis and Connor show interest on him, play with him, Percy talks to him and goes as far as to say “careful this is serious” and “I promise I’ll try to protect [Bianca]”
- Nico runs away. At first I think it was impulse. Fight or flight and he flies all right, but then he’s alone, in the labyrinth and he really processes what’s happened and he is alone
- Alone alone. 100% unchaperoned 10 going on 11 fetus of a child. No nurses, dotting grandfather, loving mother, unsentimental lawyer, devoted big sister, counsellors at camp. He’s a child. A little boy. Half-frozen and hungry and alone.